T-I  B  R.AFLY 

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UNIVERSITY 
Of    ILLINOIS 

9773 


1922. 


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OF  THE 
ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION 


THE  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS 


CLARENCE  WALWORTH  ALVORD 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

VOLUME  II 


ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION 


OTTO  LEOPOLD  SCHMIDT,   Chairman 
JESSIE  PALMER  WEBER,  Secretary 

EDWARD  BOWE  EVARTS  BOUTELL  GREENE 

JOHN  J.  BROWN  GEORGE  PASFIELD,  JR. 

JOHN  W.  BUNN  WILLIAM  NELSON  PELOUZE 

WILLIAM  BUTTERWORTH  ANDREW  JACKSON  POORMAN,  JR. 

LEONARD  ALLAN  COLP  THOMAS  F.  SCULLY 

ROYAL  WESLEY  ENNIS  FREDERIC  SIEDENBURG 
EDMUND  JANES  JAMES 


COMMITTEE   ON   CENTENNIAL    PUBLICATIONS 


EVARTS  BOUTELL  GREENE,  Chairman 

ROYAL  WESLEY  ENNIS  OTTO  LEOPOLD  SCHMIDT 

EDMUND  JANES  JAMES  FREDERIC  SIEDENBURG 


THE  CENTENNIAL  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS 
VOLUME  TWO 


THE  FRONTIER  STATE 

1818-1848 


BY 

THEODORE  CALVIN  PEASE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


CHICAGO 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 

1922 


COPYRIGHT,  1918 

BY  THE 
ILLINOIS  CENTENNIAL  COMMISSION 


V.ci 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE      ........  i 

II.     THE  NEW  STATE  GOVERNMENT,  1818-1828     ...  33 

III.  TEN  YEARS  OF  STATE  FINANCE      .......  52 

IV.  THE  CONVENTION   STRUGGLE    ........  70 

V.    THE  WAR  ON  NINIAN  EDWARDS    .......  92 

VI.    THE  RISE  OF  JACKSONIAN  DEMOCRACY    .    .        .    .  114 

VII.     STATE  POLITICS,  1830-1834    .........  136 

VIII.    THE  LAST  OF  THE  INDIANS    .........  150 

IX.     THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  NORTH  .......  173 

X.    THE  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENT  SYSTEM   .....  194 

XI.     THE  WRECK  OF  THE  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENT 

SYSTEM,  1837-1842  ...........  216 

XII.     THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PARTY  REGULARITY,  1834-1838  .  236 

XIII.  THE  WHIG  AND  DEMOCRATIC  PARTIES;  THE  CON- 

VENTION SYSTEM  ............  251 

XIV.  THE  PASSING  OF  THE  OLD  DEMOCRACY    .....  265 
XV.     STATE  POLITICS,  1840-1847     .........  278 

XVI.     STATE  AND  PRIVATE  BANKING,  1830-1845     ....  303 

XVII.     THE  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENT  SYSTEM:  THE 

SOLUTION    ..............  316 

XVIII.    THE  SPLIT  OF  THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY,  1846-1848    .  327 

XIX.     THE  MORMON  WAR  ............  340 

XX.     THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION    ..........  363 

XXI.     ILLINOIS  IN  FERMENT    ...........  383 

XXII.     SOCIAL,  EDUCATIONAL,  AND  RELIGIOUS  ADVANCE, 

1830-1848   ..............  410 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  ..............  443 

INDEX      ................  455 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

STUMP  SPEAKING Frontispiece 

POPULATION  OF  ILLINOIS  IN  1820 4 

EDWARD  COLES 76 

ELIAS  KENT  KANE 94 

POPULATION  OF  ILLINOIS  IN  1830 174 

CHICAGO  IN  1843 192 

THE  CAPITOL  AT  VANDALIA 204 

THOMAS  FORD 290 

POPULATION  OF  ILLINOIS  IN  1840 384 

PECK-MESSENGER   MAP,    1835 412 


PREFACE 

THE  time  available  for  the  writing  of  this  volume  was 
necessarily  shortened  by  the  entrance  of  the  United  States 
into  the  European  war  and  my  consequent  decision  to  apply 
for  admittance  to  a  Reserve  Officers'  Training  Camp.  The 
final  revision  was  done  during  the  short  interval  between  the 
time  when  I  was  awarded  my  commission  and  the  time  of  my 
reporting  for  duty.  Much  of  the  work  of  revision,  therefore, 
that  I  should  under  normal  conditions  have  done,  I  have  of 
necessity  intrusted  to  others.  When  I  entered  the  training 
camp  two  chapters  ( 8  and  21)  were  unwritten.  Miss  Agnes 
Wright,  my  assistant,  has  supplied  these  and,  in  addition,  has 
given  valuable  assistance  during  the  preparation  of  the  manu- 
script of  the  entire  volume.  My  brother,  Albert  A.  Pease,  has 
carefully  read  the  volume  in  manuscript  and  has  suggested 
many  improvements  in  the  text.  The  editor-in-chief  of  the 
series,  Clarence  W.  Alvord,  has  very  kindly  added  to  the 
customary  duties  of  an  editor  a  care  for  details  which  of  right 
falls  to  the  author.  I  congratulate  myself  that  in  the  emer- 
gency I  have  been  able  to  draw  on  my  friends  for  competent 
assistance  ungrudgingly  given. 

It  is  a  pleasant  duty  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to 
individuals  not  connected  with  the  work  of  the  Centennial 
Commission.  I  am  under  obligation  to  Mr.  Milo  M.  Quaife 
for  several  important  suggestions  and  for  permission  to  repro- 
duce the  copy  of  the  Peck-Messenger  map  in  the  Wisconsin 
History  Society's  library.  Mrs.  J.  B.  Dyche  has  assisted  me 
with  material  of  various  sorts.  The  Chicago  Historical  Society 
through  its  librarian,  Miss  Caroline  M.  Mcllvaine,  has 
accorded  me  every  imaginable  assistance  and  privilege  in 
connection  with  the  prosecution  of  the  work  in  Chicago. 


THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Among  those  immediately  connected  with  the  enterprise  I 
must  particularly  mention  Dr.  Otto  L.  Schmidt  and  Mr.  Evarts 
B.  Greene  of  the  Centennial  Commission,  who  officially  and 
unofficially  have  afforded  me  every  possible  assistance.  A 
third  member  of  the  Commission,  Mrs.  Jessie  Palmer  Weber, 
in  her  capacity  of  librarian  of  the  State  Historical  Library, 
has  given  me  the  privilege  of  working  there  during  the  col- 
lection of  material  at  Springfield  and  has  assumed  responsi- 
bility for  the  correctness  of  many  quoted  passages.  My  special 
obligations  to  the  editor-in-chief  I  have  already  mentioned.  At 
every  stage  he  has  done  everything  in  his  power  to  facilitate 
the  work. 

THEODORE  CALVIN  PEASE. 
Somewhere  in  France. 


THE  FRONTIER  STATE 

1818-1848 


I.     THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE 

task  of  reconstructing  for  the  student  of  history  the 
JL  politics,  manners,  and  customs  of  a  frontier  community 
such  as  the  Illinois  of  the  first  decade  of  statehood  is  not  an  easy 
one.  The  newspapers  of  that  day  only  dimly  reflect  the  life 
about  them  and  contain  no  information  whatever  about  the 
phases  of  it  which  their  readers  took  for  granted.  The  contem- 
porary traveler  too  often  saw  only  a  small  part,  and  that  inac- 
curately, detached  from  its  surroundings  save  in  so  far  as  the 
inhabitants  condescended  to  explain  them  to  him,  while  too 
often  his  prepossessions  in  favor  of  the  land  of  political  liberty 
or  his  disgust  at  the  impossibility  of  continuing  his  accustomed 
habits  of  life  lent  a  roseate  or  a  dingy  hue  to  his  picture.  The 
reminiscences  of  the  pioneer,  set  down  long  after  the  occurrence 
of  the  events  he  tried  to  describe,  are  generally  open  to  the 
suspicion  that  they  have  been  unconsciously  foreshortened  so 
that  the  descriptions  of  the  rapidly  changing  life  and  conditions 
of  the  frontier  are  focused  at  but  one  point  and  that  perhaps 
not  the  most  important.  Under  such  limitations  of  information 
the  picture  of  Illinois  a  hundred  years  ago,  if  it  is  to  be  accurate, 
must  be  somewhat  indistinct. 

Change  and  evolution  sound  the  keynote  of  frontier  Illinois. 
For  the  first  thirty  years  of  statehood  its  politicians  sprang  up, 
flourished,  changed  sides,  and  left  the  state  to  seek  new  careers 
with  a  rapidity  that  is  the  despair  of  the  chronicler.  Pioneers 
passed  over  its  territory  in  waves  with  varying  manners,  ideals, 
and  habits  of  life.  Civilization  first  of  simple,  then  of  more 
complex,  gradations  sprang  up  with  amazing  rapidity  behind 
and  among  the  frontiersmen.  The  half  savage  frontiersman 
and  the  college-bred  lawyer,  the  woman  of  the  backwoods  and 


2  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  fine  lady  rubbed  elbows  in  the  little  village  where  the  frame 
house  was  rapidly  replacing  the  log  cabin.     Into  communities 
without  religion   came   numerous   denominations    striving  to 
supply  the  lack  of  spiritual  life.     Churches  were  organized, 
were  torn  by  quarrels  and  secessions,  and  yet  reached  out  for 
better  education.    Above  all,  this  community  ready  and  eager 
to  go  up  and  possess  the  land  continually  had  to  fight  politically 
in  the  hope  of  obtaining  from  its  landlord,  the  federal  govern- 
ment, better  and  better  terms  for  the  acquisition  of  its  land. 
In  the  beginning  was  the  land ;  the  vast  stretch  of  diversified 
hill  and  plain,  forest  and  prairie,  scrub  oak,  barren,  and  swamp 
stretched  before  the  people.    Shutting  off  the  greater  part  of  it 
from  them  were  the  intangible  but  nevertheless  annoying  restric- 
tions of  the  United  States  government,  and  the  more  concrete 
barriers  of  Indian  tribes,  jealous  of  the  presence  of  the  white 
settlers  among  them,  and  of  the  wilderness  itself,  untraversed 
by  roads  and  locking  from  the  settler  with  its  standing  timber 
and  tough  sod  the  cornfields  of  the  future.     The  story  of  the 
acquisition  of  this  domain,  of  how  the  little  community  of  fron- 
tiersmen waxed  to  conquer  its  lands  to  cultivation,  of  how  suc- 
cessfully or  unsuccessfully  they  sought  to  drive  through  it  lines 
of  transport  which  might  connect  them  commercially  with  the 
outside  world,  and  of  how  they  wrestled  politically  with  their 
brethren  of  the  eastern  states  for  a  freer  hand  at  its  legal 
conquest  is  the  material  side  of  the  history  of  provincial  Illinois. 
On  the  day  when  Illinois  was  both  territory  and  state  its 
population  of  some  35,000  lay  in  two  columns  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  state,  resting  on  the  connection  with  the  outside  world 
furnished  by  the  Mississippi,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Wabash  rivers 
respectively.    The  population  clustered  in  the  rich  river  bottom, 
gift  of  the  Mississippi,  where  Illinois  history  began,  and  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  United  States  saline  in  Gallatin  county. 
It  tended  always  to  make  settlements  on  water  courses  for  the 
sake  of  securing  timber,  water,  and  easy  communication.    Away 
from  the  rivers  lay  an  unpopulated  region  in  the  interior  of 

southern  Illinois,  where  the  traveler  to  St.  Louis  or  Kaskaskia 

C 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE  3 

who  preferred  to  cut  across  by  road  from  Vincennes  or  Shaw- 
neetown  rather  than  pole  up  the  Mississippi,  could  still  stage 
tales  of  robbers,  murders,  and  hairbreadth  escapes.  On  the 
east  population  had  crept  north,  clinging  closely  to  the  Wabash, 
as  far  as  the  present  Edgar  county.  On  the  west  settlements 
had  reached  the  southern  part  of  Calhoun  county  and  were 
pushing  up  the  creeks  into  Greene  and  Macoupin;  they  had  also 
followed  the  Kaskaskia  and  its  south-flowing  tributaries,  so  that 
settlements  lay  in  Bond,  Clinton,  and  Washington  counties. 
Elsewhere  there  was  wilderness. 

To  the  north  of  the  area  of  settlement  lay  another  world 
distinct  and  independent  from  that  to  the  south.  The  Kickapoo 
Indians  still  inhabited  central  Illinois,  and  the  Sauk  and  Foxes, 
chastised  in  the  War  of  1812,  but  still  morose,  occupied  a  little 
of  the  territory  northwest  of  the  Illinois  river — the  Military 
Bounty  Tract — though  this  had  for  some  time  been  surveyed 
and  allotted  in  military  bounties  to  soldiers  of  the  War  of  1812. 
The  main  strength  of  the  Sauk  and  Foxes  in  Illinois,  however, 
lay  in  the  territory  near  the  junction  of  the  Rock  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi, where  Fort  Armstrong  on  Rock  Island  had  lately  risen 
to  overawe  them.  In  the  territory  east  of  them  lay  villages  of 
Winnebago  and  Potawatomi.  Among  them  in  northern 
Illinois  and  on  the  Illinois  and  the  Wabash  rivers  wandered 
the  fur  traders  of  the  American  Fur  Company;  these  came 
south  down  the  lake  in  their  Mackinaw  boats  each  fall,  dragged 
their  boats  over  the  Chicago  portage  to  the  Des  Plaines  river, 
went  into  winter  trading  posts  along  the  Illinois  from  which 
trading  expeditions  were  sent  out  during  the  winter,  and  carried 
their  harvest  of  furs  to  Mackinac  in  the  spring.  Besides  Fort 
Armstrong  there  lay  in  this  district  Fort  Edwards  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi, Fort  Clark  at  the  present  site  of  Peoria,  and  Fort 
Dearborn ;  though  as  Indian  dangers  waned  and  Indian  cessions 
were  consummated,  the  forts  were  successively  abandoned. 

The  terms  upon  which  the  United  States  government  dis- 
posed of  its  domain  in  Illinois  materially  affected  settlement  in 
the  state.  From  an  early  period  in  the  history  of  the  United 


4  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

States  land  policy  the  method  of  regular  surveys  had  obtained. 
The  face  of  the  country  was  surveyed  into  rectangular  town- 
ships approximately  six  miles  square.  These  were  defined  by 
their  number  north  or  south  of  a  line  called  the  base  line  and 
in  ranges  east  and  west  of  a  principal  meridian.  Each  township 
was  divided  into  thirty-six  sections,  each  containing  640  acres 
and  capable  of  division  into  quarters  and  similar  subdivisions. 

In  the  method  of  disposing  of  these  the  federal  government 
had  grown  more  and  more  liberal  as  the  years  passed.  Starting 
from  the  concept  that  the  lands  were  a  fund  for  the  payment 
of  the  national  debt,  it  had  gradually  offered  better  and  better 
terms  to  the  small  purchaser.  In  1 8 1 8  the  system  of  sale  was 
as  follows:  Lands  put  on  sale  for  the  first  time  were  set  up  at 
auction  at  the  land  office  in  the  district  containing  them.  In 
Illinois  in  1818  there  were  but  three  offices  —  Kaskaskia, 
Edwardsville,  and  Shawneetown  —  soon  to  be  increased  con- 
siderably in  number.  If  not  bid  in  at  auction  for  two  dollars 
an  acre  or  more,  lands  might  be  bought  at  any  time  thereafter 
at  private  sale,  the  terms  being  two  dollars  an  acre,  payable  in 
four  annual  installments.  In  1820,  however,  in  spite  of  stren- 
uous opposition  from  the  western  representatives,  the  credit 
system  was  abolished,  and  the  land  after  having  been  put  up 
at  auction  sold  at  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  cash  per  acre. 

The  first  result  of  the  measure  was  to  cut  down  sharply 
purchases  from  the  government.  Great  amounts  of  land  in 
southern  Illinois  had  already  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
government,  partly  as  gifts  to  the  old  French  inhabitants  and 
partly  by  speculative  entries  under  the  credit  system.  Numbers 
of  speculators  as  well  as  settlers  had  been  lured  by  the  low 
initial  payment  into  contracting  for  more  land  than  they  could 
pay  for;  and  it  took  act  after  act  permitting  the  application  of  a 
first  installment  on  a  large  piece  of  land  to  apply  as  payment  in 
full  on  a  smaller  before  they  were  extricated  from  their  diffi- 
culty. Meanwhile  sales  of  the  great  body  of  land  that  remained 
were  slow.  In  1822  sales  were  as  low  as  27,000  odd  acres;  in 
1826  they  were  some  80,000,  the  next  year  they  fell  off  to 


Population  of  Illinois 
per    Square    Mile    in 
1820 


THE    LAND   AND   THE  PEOPLE  5 

50,000,  and  not  till  1829  did  they  pass  the  hundred  thousand 
mark.  From  1820  to  1828  the  equivalent  of  twenty  townships 
was  sold.  Of  this  the  greater  part  lay  in  the  Springfield  land 
office  district,  sales  in  the  Edwardsville  and  Palestine  districts 
coming  next  in  amount.  In  the  Kaskaskia,  Vandalia,  and 
Shawneetown  districts,  which  served  southern  Illinois,  the  sales 
were  insignificant;  in  1821  the  three  offices  sold  some  14,000 
acres,  but  in  1822  they  sold  5,916;  in  1823,  2,636;  in  1824, 
4,160;  in  1825,  2,963;  in  1826,  5,4595  in  l827»  7>3395  and  in 
1828,  11,518.  The  significance  of  this  situation  is  that  the 
course  of  settlement  by  men  with  money  had  shifted  from  the 
south  and  had  passed  on  to  the  Sangamon  country  and  northern 
Illinois.  In  the  south  settlers  were  squatting  on  the  public  land. 
In  1828  W.  L.  D.  Ewing  estimated  that  in  the  counties  of  Clay, 
Marion,  Shelby,  Tazewell,  and  Fayette  there  were  1,230 
voters  of  whom  217  were  freeholders.1  The  large  sales  under 
the  credit  system  with  the  great  numbers  of  Military  Bounty 
tracts  thrown  on  the  market  had  created  such  a  glut  that  men 
with  cash  to  pay  for  land  would  buy  only  the  land  of  their 
choice.  Otherwise  the  newcomers  to  the  state  held  their  land 
by  squatters'  right,  and  by  the  force  of  public  opinion  they  were 
able  to  maintain  themselves  against  those  who  would  buy  the 
improvements  over  their  heads.  The  west  was  ripe  for  agita- 
tion for  new  legislation  in  favor  of  the  squatters  —  legislation 
which  directly  or  indirectly  would  be  opposed  by  men  with 
heavy  landholdings. 

In  the  Illinois  of  1 8 1 8  the  French. hahltan^^t^  mustered 
strong  in  numbers  in  the  villages  of  the  American  Bottom, 
though  with  a  few  exceptions,  such  as  the  Menards,  the  well- 
to-do  and  better  educated  of  their  race  were  to  be  found  across 
the  Mississippi.  Their  economic  and  social  life  has  been  the 
subject  of  the  preceding  volume  of  this  series  and  furthermore 
requires  no  special  attention  here,  since  the  influence  of  the 
French  upon  the  development  of  Illinois  in  the  nineteenth 
century  was  negligible. 

1  American  State  Papers,  Public  Lands,  5:554-556. 


6  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

It  is  not  easy  to  describe,  or  even  to  divide  into  classes,  the 
newcomers  who  were  sweeping  over  the  land  of  Illinois.  On 
the  outskirts  of  settlement  was  a  fringe  of  hunters  leading  a 
half  savage  life  in  the  forests,  supporting  their  families  by  the 
products  of  the  hunt  and  by  the  produce  of  a  few  acres  of  corn- 
land  planted  among  the  girdled  forest  trees.  Their  life  was 
a  series  of  retreats  before  the  advance  of  civilization,  and  they 
were  ever  ready  to  sell  their  improvements  to  a  newcomer  and 
to  push  out  one  stage  further  into  the  wilderness.2 

It  is  possible  to  differentiate  this  first  class  from  later 
comers  only  in  degree,  since  the  men  of  the  whole  frontier  were 
more  or  less  migrating.  The  men  who  succeeded  the  hunters 
came  also  from  the  south  for  the  most  part,  yet  they  were  in  va- 
rious degrees  more  civilized  in  their  habits,  laid  less  emphasis  on 
hunting  and  more  on  building,  making  improvements,  and  clear- 
ing land  for  the  cornfields.  They  very  often  possessed  hogs 
and  cattle  which  furnished  to  the  little  towns  a  continually 
increasing  amount  of  raw  products  to  be  traded  for  store  goods 
and  to  be  freighted  in  flatboats  or  keel-boats  down  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  as  articles  of  commerce.  This  produce  of  the 
farm  was  not  only  corn,  ginseng,  beeswax,  salted  pork,  tallow, 
hides,  and  beef,  the  last  named  sometimes  bought  by  the  store- 
keepers on  the  hoof  and  slaughtered  for  market,  but  also  vari- 
ous rough  wool  and  flax  fabrics.  Important  in  the  frontier 
market  were  such  items  as  deer  skins  and  venison  hams, 
distinctly  the  products  of  the  rifle  rather  than  of  the  hoe.3 

The  habit  of  some  writers  to  classify  these  southern  meYi 
as  hunter  pioneers  and  to  contrast  them  with  the  New  England 
and  northern  farmers  who  settled  the  prairies  of  the  north  is 
misleading  unless  the  contrast  is  carefully  limited  and  defined. 
The  settlers  of  the  south  hunted,  as  did  white  men  everywhere 
in  the  wilderness  where  there  were  no  game  laws.  JThey 
enlarged  their  cornlands  by  clearing  the  forest  instead  of  cul- 
tivating the  prairies  because,  in  the  decade  in  which  they  settled 

2  Fordham,  Personal  Narrative,  125-126;  Flower,  History  of  the  English 
Settlement,  129. 

8  Fordham,  Personal  Narrative,  181 ;  Birkbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey,  155. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE  7 

the  state,  farmers  preferred  such  lands,  chiefly  because  the 
forested  lands  offered  greater  accessibility  to  wood  and  water, 
partly  because  they  lacked  the  capital  necessary  for  breaking 
up  and  fencing  the  prairie,  and  partly  because  the  scarcity  of 
markets  offered  no  temptation  to  raise  grain  that  could  not  be 
sold.  Without  a  heavy  ox  team  breaking  the  prairie  was  almost 
impossible,  and  without  improved  transportation  produce  could 
not  be  carried  to  market. 

There  has  grown  up  a  traditional  interpretation  of  events 
sanctioned  now  by  age,  that  would  explain  the  stoppage  of  the 
northern  thrust  of  the  southern  pioneers  by  the  downpouring 
of  immigrants  from  the  northeast  into  the  valleys  of  the  upper 
Illinois  river.  There  is  little  in  the  sources  of  information  that 
gives  warrant  for  interpreting  the  encounter  as  a  meeting  of 
opposing  forces.  It  is  true  that  the  immigration  of  the  north- 
erners followed  closely  on  the  heels  of  the  backwoods  hunters, 
but  this  relation  in  the  time  of  the  two  movements  has  only 
apparently  justified  the  interpretation,  for  to  all  appearances 
the  two  peoples  settled  down  side  by  side  in  peace  and  concord 
throughout  the  state,  the  southern  element  naturally  enough 
preponderating  in  the  southern  counties  and  the  "Yankee" 
element  in  the  northern. 

Besides  this  class  of  so-called  hunter  pioneers  the  commu- 
nity had  a  set  of  young  men  of  education,  of  legal  training,  and 
of  good  address,  who  aspired  to  the  leadership  of  the  com- 
munity. Frequently  they  had  a  few  hundreds  or  thousands 
to  invest  in  land  speculations.  Some  of  them  married  into  the 
well-to-do  French  families.  They  were  men  of  more  finished 
manner  than  the  average  pioneer,  and  their  wives  and  daughters 
speedily  gave  the  community  a  touch  of  sophistication.  Doubt- 
less it  was  for  this  class  the  stores  advertised  the  finer  goods 
such  as  silks,  crepes,  and  other  fabrics  of  similar  character,  and 
kept  the  choicer  wines,  liquors,  and  groceries.4 

The  conditions  in  the  towns  are  more  or  less  truthfully 

4  In  this  chapter  I  have  made  much  use  of  an  unpublished  monograph  by 
my  assistant  Miss  Agnes  Wright  on  the  subject  of  social  conditions  in  early 
Illinois. 


8  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

mirrored  in  the  contemporary  newspapers.  In  the  towns,  when 
the  state  was  young,  the  rising  brick  and  frame  houses  con- 
trasted sharply  with  the  log  cabins  of  the  territorial  days;  yet 
the  stage  of  civilization  must  not  be  overestimated,  for  even 
in  1821  Shawneetown  had  no  courthouse,  jail,  church,  or  school. 
The  towns  were  disorderly  places  at  best,  a  Shawneetown 
Sunday  being  a  byword.  Frequently  they  were  rendered 
unhealthy  by  pools  of  stagnant  water  and  by  the  lack  of  all 
sanitation.  In  1822  the  trustees  of  Shawneetown  had  to  pass 
an  ordinance  providing  for  the  removal  of  dead  animals  and 
for  the  laying  of  sidewalks.  Town  government  in  so  far  as 
it  was  distinct  from  other  local  government  was  rudimentary. 
Towns  were  incorporated  by  individual  acts  which  gave  the 
trustees  power  to  legislate  for  the  order  of  the  town  and  to  levy 
taxes  on  town  lots.5 

The  towns  of  the  early  days  could  boast  of  only  the  most 
rudimentary  manufactures.  The  newspapers  contain  numer- 
ous advertisements  of  grist  mills,  steam  distilleries,  log  stills, 
sawmills,  etc.  In  1817  Jesse  B.  Thomas  set  up  a  carding 
machine  in  Cahokia,  which  was  managed  by  Adam  W.  Snyder. 
Promoters  of  towns  were  continually  offering  special  induce- 
ments to  mechanics  and  skilled  workmen  to  settle  within  their 
communities  in  order  that  the  simplest  needs  of  the  inhabitants 
might  be  supplied,  and  the  advertisements  in  the  newspapers 
show  the  presence  of  coopers,  tanners,  clock  and  watchmakers, 
hatters,  and  milliners.  There  is  some  evidence,  however,  that 
the  economic  position  of  such  artisans  was  not  altogether  pros- 
perous; at  least  the  Illinois  Gaz-ette  in  1820  complained  that 
high  rents  had  driven  the  mechanics  from  Shawneetown.6 

The  most  important  function  which  the  towns  performed 
was  that  of  furnishing  a  buying  and  shipping  point  for  country 

8  Illinois  Gazette,  May  19,  December  8,  1821,  May  25,  November  30,  1822; 
Tillson,  Reminiscences,  35  8. ;  Laius  of  1819,  p.  249,259;  Laivs  of  1821,  p.  160,176. 

6  Illinois  Gazette,  March  30,  July  i,  8,  1820,  April  10,  1824;  Ediuardsville 
Spectator,  May  23,  1820,  May  4,  1822;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  February  17,  De- 
cember 15,  1819,  September  9,  1820;  Snyder,  Adam  W.  Snyder,  28.  A  manufac- 
turing company  in  Bond  county  was  incorporated.  There  was  also  a  general 
incorporation  law.  Laius  of  1825,  p.  113. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE  9 

produce  and  a  distributing  point  for  store  goods.  Stores  were 
ordinarily  kept  by  men  of  considerable  means.  They  adver- 
tised in  the  local  papers  alluring  lists  of  goods  "just  in"  and 
offered  to  dispose  of  them  "  cheaply  for  cash,  for  produce,  or 
on  terms."  Shawneetown,  Edwardsville,  and  Carmi  appar- 
ently did  a  wholesale  trade  as  well.  Moreover,  some  store- 
keepers at  Edwardsville  and  one  at  Shawneetown  regularly 
advertised  semiweekly  auctions  of  goods.  Occasionally  mer- 
chants employed  peddlers  to  go  through  the  country  to  sell  their 
merchandise.  The  Illinois  Gazette  contains  an  indignant  adver- 
tisement for  a  runaway  peddler  "  from  Connecticut,  and  is  no 
doubt  a  perfect  chip  of  the  old  block  1 "  One  notices  frequent 
insistent  advertisements  calling  on  delinquent  debtors  to 
settle.7 

In  the  Illinois  of  1818  Shawneetown  seemed  to  hold  a 
favorable  position  as  the  gateway,  a  fact  which  had  been  recog- 
nized by  the  United  States  government  by  the  designation  of 
the  town  as  a  port  of  entry.  It  was  the  natural  Illinois  entre- 
pot for  the  eastern  part  of  the  state  and  for  the  country  up  the 
tributaries  of  the  Wabash.  One  rival  to  its  trade  near  at  hand, 
however,  was  the  New  Harmony  settlement  of  Frederick  Rapp, 
which  in  1823  maintained  a  store  in  Shawneetown  for  the  sale 
of  its  goods,  woolen  cloths,  cottons,  hats,  shoes,  stockings, 
leather,  flour,  wine,  whisky,  brandy,  beer,  etc.,  as  well  as  a  line 
of  eastern  goods  from  Philadelphia.  Rapp's  failure  to  buy  as 
well  as  sell  made  him  unpopular,  however,  with  the  resident 
merchants.8 

On  the  west  side  of  the  state  St.  Louis  had  the  position  of 
dominance.  It  held  western  Illinois  subject  to  it  commercially, 
despite  the  attempts  at  Alton  and  at  Cairo  to  build  up  rivals 
on  Illinois  soil.  Its  merchants  advertised  in  western  Illinois 
papers,  and  they  were  even  able  to  regulate  the  discount  at 
which  Illinois  bank  notes  should  pass;  indeed,  they  exercised 
some  influence  on  the  politics  of  the  state. 

7  Frequently  merchants  bought  and  sold  goods  on  commission,  see  Illinois 
Gazette,  September  9,  1820.     See  also  ibid.,  October  9,  December  4,  1819. 

8  Ibid.,  November  8,  1823. 


io  THE   FRONTIER  STATE 

In  the  Illinois  of  1818-1828  transportation  was  a  serious 
problem,  and  the  means  available  for  it  necessarily  influenced 
the  state's  contact  commercially  and  intellectually  with  the  out- 
side world.  Transportation  overland  was  an  extremely  diffi- 
cult matter.  The  so-called  roads  of  southern  Illinois  were  of 
but  little  account  and  transportation  facilities  were  meager. 
Not  till  1819  was  a  stage  line  from  Kaskaskia  to  St.  Louis  in 
operation.  In  the  summer  of  that  year  a  second  line  from 
Shawneetown  to  St.  Louis  was  projected.  In  1822  a  stage 
wagon  was  advertised  to  run  from  Springfield  to  St.  Louis  once 
in  two  weeks,  taking  two  days  for  the  trip.9 

The  state's  main  reliance  had  to  be  on  river  transporta- 
tion^ At  the  time  of  the  admission  of  Illinois  to  the  union  the 
steamboat  was  just  replacing  the  flatboat  and  keel-boat.  The 
keel-boat  or  flatboat  was  often  of  considerable  size,  nineteen 
and  even  twenty-seven  tons.  The  farmer  who  chose  to  eschew 
steamer  transportation  to  his  market  either  himself  navigated 
a  flatboat  or  keel-boat  with  his  produce 10  or  intrusted  it  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  river  boatmen,  hard  drinking,  desperate 
men  who  terrorized  the  villages  along  the  river,  governing 
themselves  by  a  rough  and  ready  code  of  their  own  in  which 
stealing  under  certain  circumstances  was  permissible  and  mur- 
der an  ordinary  matter.  Year  by  year  their  importance  was 
destined  to  wane  as  law  and  order  grew  stronger  in  the  river 
towns  and  the  steamboats  multiplied  in  number.  Sweeping 
down  the  river  to  the  tune  of  such  doggerel  boat  songs  as 
"  Hard  upon  the  beach  oar !  She  moves  too  slow ;  All  the  way 
to  Shawneetown,  Long  time  ago,"  they  lent  to  the  frontier 
a  touch  of  the  picturesque  and  romantic  peculiarly  grateful  to 
the  literature  of  the  next  generation. 

The  river  steamer,  which  was  ultimately  to  displace  these 
men's  monopoly,  had  its  difficulties  with  the  Ohio  river.  Feb- 
ruary io,  1820,  the  Illinois  Gazette  noted  the  passage  up  the 
river  to  Louisville  of  six  or  seven  steamboats,  delayed  since 

9  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  20,  1819,  July  5,  1823;  Edwardsville  Spec- 
tator, August  7,  1819,  April  27,  1822. 

10  Illinois  Gazette,  December  15,  1822;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  May  31,  1820. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE  PEOPLE          n 

June  by  low  water.  The  previous  spring,  on  the  other  hand, 
high  water  had  cut  Shawneetown  off  from  the  outside  world.11 
During  the  twenties  the  navigation  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi 
were  improved  by  the  federal  government  to  the  extent  of  the 
removal  of  obstructions,  the  channeling  of  sand  bars,  and  the 
grubbing  out  of  "  snags  "  and  "  sawyers." 

Even  with  improvement  in  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
river  the  problem  of  transportation  was  still  a  serious  one. 
The  inevitable  tendency  of  trade  in  the  west  until  the  coming 
of  the  railroad  was  toward  water  routes.  Down  every  Illinois 
creek  or  river,  produce  naturally  poured  to  the  Ohio  and  Mis- 
sissippi, thence  to  pile  up  on  the  wharves  of  New  Orleans. 
Manufactured  goods  had  to  come  from  the  east  whether  they 
were  shipped  by  sea  from  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  to  New 
Orleans  and  thence  brought  up  the  Mississippi,  or  whether  they 
followed  the  stream  down  from  Pittsburg.  The  balancing 
of  credits  was  an  exchange  problem  that  the  age  was  not  able 
to  solve ;  and  with  her  credits  receivable  at  New  Orleans  and 
her  debits  due  in  the  east,  Illinois  was  facing  an  impossible 
situation  that  drained  her  scanty  currency  in  remittances  and 
lent  a  specious  excuse  for  the  founding  of  unstable  banks.12. 

Some,  foreseeing  that  Illinois  could  never  prosper  without 
new  outlets  for  its  commerce,  turned  to  the  hope  of  internal 
improvements.  In  1824  George  E.  McDuffie  pronounced  in 
congress  that  if  the  west's  relations  were  to  continue  solely 
with  New  Orleans,  the  union  could  not  last  fifty  years.  It  was 
said  that  the  produce  of  the  west  was  floated  down  the  Missis- 
sippi at  high  water  to  pile  up  at  New  Orleans  in  the  unhealthy 
season;  that  Illinois  beef  and  pork  which  was  not  put  up  with 
imported  salt  spoiled  in  the  New  Orleans  market;  that  in  the 
last  five  years  one-sixth  of  the  flour  unloaded  there  had  spoiled; 
and  that  even  then  the  trade  route  to  Europe  was  too  long. 
Thomas  Hart  Benton,  in  debate  on  "  Foot's  Resolution,"  laid 
down  a  counter-proposition  that  internal  improvements  over 

11  Illinois  Gazette,  March  27,  April  3,  1819. 

12  In  1821  a  firm  tried  to  devise  an  exchange  of  produce  for  goods  at  New 
Orleans.    Ibid.,  December  15,   1821;  Edwardsville  Spectator,  June  18,  1820. 


12  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  mountains  were  useless  to  the  west,  and  that  she  must  still 
find  her  market  at  New  Orleans;  but  every  year  was  to  add 
fresh  demonstration  that  Benton's  proposition  was  fallacious. 
The  Illinois-Michigan  canal  whereby  the  Illinois  river  might 
be  made  tributary  to  a  transportation  system  which  would  lead 
over  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Erie  canal  and  the  east  was  the 
measure  which  to  Daniel  Pope  Cook  and  to  an  increasing  num- 
ber of  Illinoisans  appeared  the  best  remedy.13 

The  history  of  the  development  of  Illinois  between  1818 
and  1822  would  be  incomplete  without  mention  of  a  concerted 
scheme  of  colonization  that,  running  in  channels  completely 
different  from  those  which  carried  the  ordinary  course  of  set- 
tlement, was  to  influence  the  development  of  the  state  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  numbers  engaged  in  it.  This  enterprise  was 
the  settlement  of  English  Prairie  in  Edwards  county  by  Morris 
Birkbeck  and  the  Flowers.  At  its  inception  the  motive  force 
in  the  movement  was  the  discontent  with  economic  and  political 
conditions  in  England  that  affected  men  of  the  comparatively 
affluent  classes.  For  example,  Morris  Birkbeck  by  his  industry 
and  ability  had  raised  himself  to  the  position  of  a  tenant  farmer, 
farming  on  long  lease  a  holding  of  1,500  acres  in  the  hamlet  of 
Wanborough;  yet  he  was  not  a  freeholder  and  therefore  not 
entitled  to  the  vote;  he  chafed  at  the  social  and  political  inferi- 
ority which  thus  marked  him,  as  well  as  at  the  heavy  taxes  and 
tithes  levied  on  him  by  the  parliament  in  which  he  had  no  voice 
and  by  the  church  in  which  he  was  not  a  communicant.14  He 
aspired,  to  use  his  own  words,  to  leave  his  children  citizens  of 
"  a  flourishing,  public-spirited,  energetic  community,  where  the 
insolence  of  wealth,  and  the  servility  of  pauperism,  between 
which,  in  England,  there  is  scarcely  an  interval  remaining,  are 
alike  unknown."15  The  United  States  seemed  to  him  the  real- 
ization of  his  political  ideals;  and  except  for  his  detestation 
of  slavery  he  looked  on  its  institutions  and  the  assumed  polit- 
ical and  social  virtues  of  its  republic  and  citizens  through  glasses 

13  Illinois  Intelligencer,  February  8,  1823. 

14  Birkbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey,  8-9;  Birkbeck,  Letters  from  Illinois,  28. 

15  Birkbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey,  10. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE  13 

of  rose  tint.  No  less  attractive  perhaps  was  the  opportunity  / 
it  afforded  him  of  becoming  a  freeholder  at  a  rate  comparable 
to  English  rental  values.  George  Flower,  son  of  Birkbeck'j 
friend,  Richard  Flower,  who  had  been  sent  to  the  United  State 
in  search  of  land,  had  conceived  a  romantic  affection  for  th 
prairies  of  which  he  had  read  in  Imlay's  Topographical 
Description  of  the  Western  Territory  of  North  America. 
When  at  last  he  and  Birkbeck  crossed  the  Wabash  into  Illinois 
and  attained  the  Boltonhouse  prairie,  depressed  as  they  had 
been  by  the  mighty  forests  through  which  they  had  journeyed, 
the  broad  expanse  of  meadow  stretching  for  miles  embayed  in 
the  surrounding  timber  seemed  to  them  the  manor  park  that 
they  coveted,  and  they  hastened  to  acquire  as  much  of  it  as 
their  funds  would  permit.16 

In  presenting  their  design  of  a  colony  to  the  English  public 
by  the  publication  of  Birkbeck's  letters,  the  promoters  strove 
to  induce  men  of  their  own  social  status  —  tenant  farmers  pos- 
sessed of  capital  and  desirous  of  becoming  landholders  —  to 
take  up  land  from  them  or  in  their  vicinity.  As  a  complement 
this  necessarily  required  the  establishment  of  a  class  comparable 
to  English  agricultural  laborers  or  cottagers;  and  in  fact  the 
enemies  of  the  enterprise  later  insinuated  that  while  holding 
great  tracts  for  wealthy  emigrants  who  never  came,  the  pro- 
moters refused  to  sell  smaller  tracts  to  poorer  men.  The  accu- 
sation was  made  that  they  had  founded  a  rich  man's 
settlement.  The  first  settlers  to  come,  however,  were  mechan- } 
ics  and  laborers,  who  had  not  been  concerned  in  the  original: 
enterprise  but  who  were  attracted  by  Birkbeck's  books.17 

Birkbeck,  who  remained  on  the  ground  over  winter  with 
the  uncertain  labor  obtainable  from  the  backwoodsmen  —  half  / 
hunters,  half  farmers  —  who  surrounded  him,  was  not  able  to 

18  Birkbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey,  16  ff.,  37,  57,  58,  98,  107,  113;  Birkbeck, 
Letters  from  Illinois,  28-29,  4*  >  Flower,  History  of  the  English  Settlement,  64; 
Flower,  Letters  from  Lexington  and  the  Illinois,  102-103 ;  Faux,  Memorable 
Days  in  America,  254-255. 

17  Birkbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey,  132-133,  141-163;  Birkbeck,  Letters  from 
Illinois,  ip,  18-19,  755  Faux,  Memorable  Days  in  America,  235,  238-239,  244; 
Flower,  History  of  the  English  Settlement,  96. 


I4  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

;  get  accommodations  completed  for  newcomers.  Food  for  the 
first  year  had  largely  to  be  procured  from  the  nearby  Rapp 
/  community  at  New  Harmony  in  Indiana.  The  newcomers  and 
|  such  wealthier  immigrants  as  followed  fared  well  or  ill,  accord- 
ing to  their  ability  to  work  for  themselves  and  to  make  the  best 
of  backwoods  conditions.  Men  without  large  capital  or  enter- 
prise missed  the  agricultural  laboring  class  of  England  and  the 
presence  of  women  servants,  and  they  were  described  by  per- 
sons not  well  disposed  to  the  enterprise  as  for  the  time  reduced 
to  squalid  wretchedness.  Attacks  inspired  by  the  "borough 
managers,"  so  the  leaders  believed,  and  by  men  interested  in 
eastern  lands  who  enlisted  in  their  behalf  the  sharp  pen  of 
Cobbett — sometimes  known  as  Porcupine  Cobbett — spread 
the  tales  of  the  wretchedness  and  woe  existing  at  English 
Prairie.  They  made  the  most  of  expressions  of  pleasure  by 
Birkbeck  at  the  absence  of  all  religious  observance  on  the  fron- 
tier and  used  them  to  brand  the  enterprise  as  irreligious;  this 
accusation  was  met  by  the  building  of  churches,  in  one  of  which 
Unitarian  and  in  the  other  Episcopal  services  were  installed  by 
Flower  and  Birkbeck,  respectively.18 

To  add  to  the  difficulties  of  the  settlement  a  feud  broke  out 
between  Birkbeck  and  George  and  Richard  Flower.  The 
causes  of  it  undoubtedly  were  connected  with  the  marriage, 
during  the  exploratory  trip,  of  George  Flower  to  Miss 
Andrews;19  but  whether  Birkbeck's  anger  was  the  jealousy  of 
a  rejected  suitor  or  the  just  resentment  of  a  man  who  had 
unconsciously  been  made  a  party  to  an  impropriety  in  offense 
of  good  taste,  if  not  of  good  morals,  it  is  not  necessary  to  decide. 
On  George  Flower's  return  Birkbeck  refused  to  have  any  deal- 
ings with  him,  and  he  was  left  to  establish  a  home  for  his 
father's  family  as  best  he  might.  The  settlement  clustered  in 
two  groups,  one  centering  in  Wanborough,  the  town  founded 

18  See  the  descriptions  of  the  various  families  in  Faux,  Memorable  Days  in 
America,  252-273.  Fordham,  Personal  Narrative,  216,  227  ff. ;  Birkbeck,  Letters 
from  Illinois,  23  ff. ;  Flower,  Letters  from  Illinois,  124,  129,  131-132,  144-145. 

10  Faux,  Memorable  Days  in  America,  271  ff.  Contrast  this  gossip  with  the 
discreet  silence  of  Woods,  T<wo  Years'  Residence,  348-349. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE  PEOPLE  15 

by  Birkbeck  in  August,  1818,  the  other  in  Albion,  the  town 
some  two  miles  to  the  east  laid  out  by  George  Flower  with 
Elias  Pym  Fordham  and  others  two  months  later.     In  the 
course  of  two  or  three  years  the  men  who  were  determined 
on  success  had  made  headway.    By  1819  there  were  400  Eng-  J 
lish  and  700  Americans  in  the  settlement.     They  had  estab-/ 
lished  comfortable  homes  and  large  farm  structures,  had  disi 
covered  the  futility,  in  default  of  labor,  of  extensive  grair 
farming,  were  turning  their  attention  to  the  raising  of  cattle 
sheep,  and  hogs,  and  were  making  progress.     Practical  farm- 
ers with  money  and  industry  were  doing  well,  and  good  laborers 
imported  by  the  leaders  were  acquiring  lands  of  their  own.20^ 
The  leaders  had  perhaps  totally  abandoned  their  desire  of  a 
cluster  of  manors  in  southeastern  Illinois,  as  they  discovered 
that  the  English  agricultural  laborers  they  imported  also  caught 
the  land  fever.     Men  of  narrower  views  believed  they  saw  in 
the  lack  of  labor  a  justification  of  negro  slavery  and  a  necessity 
for  it.    Men  like  Birkbeck  were  able  to  accept  the  facts  as  they 
were  and  at  the  same  time  to  foresee  an  Illinois  of  free  farmers, 
neither  masters  nor  servants. 

The  enterprise  had  done  much  for  Illinois.  It  had  brought 
the  prairie  into  notice  if  not  into  vogue.  Against  the  agriculture 
necessarily  practiced  by  the  farmer  of  small  means  —  a  corn- 
patch  among  trees  girdled  by  the  ax,  growing  larger  year  by 
year  —  it  had  set  the  utility  of  prairie  land  either  for  grazing 
or  for  grain  when  broken  as  it  could  be  by  men  able  to  afford 
a  six-ox  team.  Through  the  numerous  books  of  Birkbeck,  the 
Flowers,  and  others,  it  had  brought  Illinois  into  notice  not  only 
in  England  but  in  the  eastern  United  States  and  in  continental 
Europe  as  well.  More  important  stillLit  had  in  Morris  Birk.-__ 
beck  brought  to  the  state  a  leader  whose  services  in  the  struggle 
with  slavery  werqpast  all  estimate. 

Almost  equally  important  was  Birkbeck' s  influence  in  thel 
advancement  of  scientific  agriculture.    The  call  for  the  forma- 

20  Flower,  History  of  the  English  Settlement,  130;  Flower,  Letters  from  Lex- 
ington and  the  Illinois,  104,  157-142;  Woods,  Two  Years'  Residence,  258-259,  339. 


16  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

tion  of  an  agricultural  society  appeared  October  8,  1819,  in 
the  Edwardsville  Spectator.  It  was  signed  "A  Farmer  of 
Madison"  and  hence  may  very  possibly  have  originated  with 
Edward  Coles.  At  the  meeting  for  organization  held  on  No- 
vember 10,  the  society  elected  Birkbeck  president  and  Coles 
first  vice  president,  and  it  speedily  drew  the  support  of  the 
prominent  men  of  the  state.  It  offered  premiums  not  only  for 
wheat,  corn,  hay,  and  fine  livestock,  but  also  for  hemp,  flax,  cot- 
ton, homespun  cloth  —  the  premium  for  this  last  was  in  1823 
awarded  to  Governor  Bond  —  tobacco,  castor  oil,  wool,  malt 
liquor,  salt,  and  cheese.  Agricultural  societies,  with  some 
emphasis  on  the  policy  of  non-importation  due  to  the  hardness 
of  the  times,  were  founded  in  Madison  and  Bond  counties;  and 
these  were  affiliated  with  the  state  society.  In  1825,  however, 
the  society  disbanded,  turning  over  its  funds  to  Sunday 
schools.21 

The  most  interesting  work  of  this  society  was  the  series  of 
proposals  for  better  agriculture  that  emanated  from  its  mem- 
bers. Birkbeck's  suggestions  are  of  most  interest.  He  repeat- 
edly urged  on  the  society  the  importance  of  turning  a  large 
share  of  attention  to  grazing  and  dairying,  insisting  on  the 
need  of  growing  finer  grasses  before  fine  wool  could  be  hoped 
for,  and  insisting  on  the  need  of  stringent  measures  against 
wolves,  as  a  prerequisite  to  successful  sheep  raising.22  In  1820 
he  voiced  a  prophetic  warning  against  the  danger  of  skinning 
the  soil,  a  practice  already  too  prevalent  in  the  older  states. 
He  suggested  various  devices  for  successful  prairie  farming, 
recommending  also  in  an  article  in  the  Illinois  Gazette  the  use 
of  ditches  for  prairie  fencing.  Coles  came  forward  with  a 
method  which  he  thought  would  reduce  the  expense  of  breaking 
prairies,  a  second  surface  plowing  followed  by  harrowing.23 

21  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  19,  1822,  December  13,   1823,  January  25, 
1826;  Illinois  Gazette,  March  i,  1823. 

22  In  1823  the  legislature  offered  a  premium  of  $200  for  the  greatest  number 
of  wolves  above  sixty  killed  in  the  state,  and  a  premium  of  $40  for  the  greatest 
number  killed  above  ten  in  each  county.     In   1825  they  substituted   a  general 
bounty  of  one  dollar  per  head.    See  also  Illinois  Intelligencer,  May  13,  1820. 

23  Illinois  Gazette,  May  5,  1821,  January  5,  1822. 


I? 

One  point  of  especial  interest  treated  by  the  society  was 
the  need  of  improving  the  health  of  the  country  by  draining 
standing  and  stagnant  waters.  These  conditions  were  often 
perpetuated  in  the  small  running  streams  of  Illinois  by  mill  dams 
designed  to  afford  pressure  for  water  mills.  In  1821  the  Agri- 
cultural Society  announced  a  premium  for  an  essay  on  the  sub- 
ject which  detailed  the  foregoing  objections  to  water  power  and 
proposed  animal  power  in  its  place. 

If  it  is  difficult  to  describe  frontier  Illinois  in  its  physical 
aspects  since  it  is  impossible  to  describe  it  in  its  mental  and  spirit- 
ual; the  evidence  is  even  more  fragmentary  and  more  subject  to 
bias  in  the  observers.  Again,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  news- 
papers which  might  seemingly  furnish  unconscious  evidence  on 
this  subject  do  not  reflect  the  mental  attitude  of  great  parts  of 
the  population,  since  their  circulation  was  very  limited.  One 
wonders  often  how  far.  the  traditional  shibboleths  of  frontier 
Illinois  are  humorous  exaggerations ;  for  instance,  how  far  was 
the  oft-cited  prejudice  against  Yankees  based  on  a  piece  of  pop- 
ular humor  comparable  to  the  mother-in-law  joke? 

Some  general  characteristics  can  be  positively  described. 
English  observers,  friendly  or  hostile,  commented  on  the  open 
and  unabashed  manner  of  the  people.  In  the  Illinois  frontiers- 
man there  was  none  of  the  self-conscious  awkward  rusticity  of 
the  English  peasant.  The  instillation  of  the  doctrine  of  liberty 
and  equality  undoubtedly  had  so  far  borne  fruit  as  to  make 
the  conviction  of  his  own  dignity  apparent  in  the  conversation 
of  every  man.  The  interpretation  put  upon  this  attitude 
and  the  form  it  took  naturally  varied  with  the  attitude  of  the 
observer.  If  he  expected  his  money  to  buy  him  obsequiousness 
he  was  disappointed  and  had  to  complain  often  of  a  positive 
bad  faith  and  trickiness  which  at  times  may  well  have  been  a 
desperate  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  native  to  vindicate  an 
affront  to  his  dignity.  If  the  traveler  met  all  men  with  an 
open  friendliness,  he  generally  encountered  in  return  a  real 
kindliness  and  courtesy.  If  the  frontiersman  was  appealed  to 
as  a  man  for  help  and  sympathy  he  usually  responded  in  liberal 


18  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

measure.  If  he  was  hired  as  a  servant,  little  good  could  be 
expected  from  him.24 

Probably  the  jarring  with  backwoodsmen  and  accusations 
of  bad  faith  and  trickiness  in  bargains  made  against  them  fre- 
quently arose  from  the  fact  that  on  the  frontier  specific  per- 
formance of  contract  had  hardly  come  to  be  regarded  as  the 
touchstone  of  honesty.  In  a  wild  country  where  natural  ele- 
ments continually  intervene  to  prevent  the  performance  of  a 
set  duty  at  the  proper  time,  it  is  an  easy  and  natural  step  to 
regard  personal  convenience  or  even  personal  whims  as  worthy 
to  be  taken  into  account.  In  Illinois  men  from  older  settled 
communities  might  fume  in  vain,  if  they  had  not  tact  to  wheedle 
a  performance  of  contract  out  of  the  party  bound. 

Probably  this  furnishes  a  clue  to  the  reason  for  the  dislike 
of  the  Yankee  so  far  as  it  was  not  a  half  humorous  attitude. 
Even  in  a  moderately  well-to-do  settlement  of  southern  men, 
the  Yankee's  insistence  on  writings,  mortgages,  bonds,  and  the 
like,  and  his  superstitious  observance  of  days  and  times  con- 
tributed to  render  him  unpopular  as  being  unneighborly.  To 
ask  a  man  on  the  frontier  to  hire  out  his  oxen  rather  than  to 
lend  them  was  thought  to  imply  a  belief  that  he  would  "  act  like 
a  Yankee."  Furthermore,  the  frontiersman  divined  the  prim 
New  Englander's  suppressed  feeling  of  criticism  for  all  the 
shiftless,  easy-going  habits  of  frontier  life.  Taking  thought 
for  the  morrow  and  multiplying  mechanical  devices  to  meet 
it  were  considered  especially  "  Yankee;"  and  Mrs.  John  Tillson 
found  her  clothespins  looked  upon  as  the  latest  Yankee  notion. 
In  spite  of  the  prejudice  against  Yankees,  they  were  repeatedly, 
as  in  Tillson's  case,  placed  in  situations  of  importance,  often 
probably  because  their  education  and  disciplined  attention  to 
business  rendered  them  indispensable  for  many  duties.25 

How  far  social  distinctions  divided  the  frontier  state  into 

24  Fearon,  Sketches   of  America,   398,  437  passim;   Birkbeck,  Notes   on  a 
Journey,  107;  Fordham,  Personal  Narrative,  196. 

25  Woods,  T<wo  Years'  Residence,  261,  317;  Buck,  "The  New  England  Ele- 
ment in    Illinois   Politics   before   1833,"   Mississippi   Valley   Historical   Associa- 
tion, Proceedings,  6:49-61. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE          19 

classes,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Most  observers  remarked  that, 
the  backwoods  pioneer  being  omitted,  the  various  classes  did 
not  vary  nearly  so  much  in  intellectual  grasp  as  in  England. 
"  In  this  remote  part  of  America,  judges,  generals  of  militia, 
colonels,  captains,  and  esquires,  are  not  generally  men  of  prop- 
erty or  education ;  and  it  is  usual  to  see  them  employed  in  any 
common  kind  of  labour.  Yet  I  have  seen  men  among  them  that 
possess  very  good  abilities;  far  from  ignorant,  and  much  better 
informed  than  could  be  expected  from  their  appearance."26  So 
far  as  wealth  and  its  means  of  display  were  concerned,  however, 
the  basis  for  social  distinction  existed.  When  Shawneetown 
was  a  village  of  one  brick  and  several  frame  houses  amid  a 
cluster  of  log  cabins,  it  boasted  one  jewelry  store  which  at 
least  advertised  a  surprisingly  wide  selection.  Advertisements 
of  silks,  satins,  broadcloths,  muslins,  cambrics,  and  silk  gloves, 
among  plaids  and  cheap  stuffs  and  offerings  of  fine  groceries 
and  Madeira  wine  as  well  as  of  whisky  by  the  barrel  prove  the 
existence  of  such  distinctions.  To  take  action  against  the  im- 
portation of  such  luxuries,  societies  were  formed  between  the 
years  1819  and  1821.  The  political  aspirations  of  the  well-to- 
do  men  doubtless  induced  them,  especially  at  elections,  to  keep 
such  distinctions  in  the  background.  Nevertheless  the  society 
of  afternoon  teas  and  great  dinners  must  have  lived  side  by 
side  with  the  simple  society  whose  social  events  were  the  dance 
after  the  corn  husking  or  barn  raising  and  the  gathering  at  the 
county  seat  on  court  day  or  at  the  camp  meeting,  the  last  two 
probably  partaken  of  by  rich  as  well  as  by  poor.  Woods 
mentions  husking,  raising,  reaping,  rolling,  picking,  sewing,  and 
quilting  frolics ;  and  they  were  much  more  common  than  their 
mention  in  the  contemporary  literature  of  the  frontier  might 
lead  one  to  suppose.27 

Patriotism  of  a  higher  or  lower  type  flourished  in  pioneer 
Illinois.  In  the  frontiersman,  according  to  Fordham,  it  might 
be  described  best  as  a  belief  that  Americans,  especially  the 

26  Woods,  Two  Years'  Residence,  346. 

27  Fordham,  Personal  Narrative,  210;  Woods,  Two   Years'  Residence,  300. 


20  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

people  of  his  own  state,  were  the  best  soldiers  in  the  world. 
In  the  class  reached  by  the  newspaper,  it  took  a  finer  form. 
At  the  Fourth  of  July  dinners  so  often  noted  in  the  papers 
"  The  memory  of  Washington  "  usually  was  drunk  in  silence, 
and  there  was  almost  always  a  toast  to  the  heroes  of  the  Revo- 
lution, both  toasts  indicating  a  pride  in  what  rapidly  was  coming 
to  be  hallowed  by  distance  as  a  great  and  glorious  past.  The 
valor  of  the  frontiersman  and  of  the  jack  tar  in  the  War  of 
1812  offered  a  new  stimulus  to  national  pride.  Further,  as  the 
newspaper  reported  for  its  readers,  the  monarchical  weaknesses 
of  the  old  world,  the  contemptible  foibles  of  the  libertine 
George  IV  and  his  immodest  queen,  the  stirrings  of  revolution 
and  liberty  in  Europe  and  South  America  under  the  influence 
and  example  of  republican  America  made  the  nation  seem 
destined  to  an  even  nobler  and  more  significant  future  as  the 
standard  bearer  of  republican  principles.  Adherence  to  these 
principles  as  yet  seemed  a  bond  of  political  unity  beside  which 
considerations  of  dynastic  allegiance  or  racial  ties  seemed 
frivolous.  In  1820  men  were  well  content  to  ask  no  other 
unity  for  the  American  nation.  The  doubts  and  fears  that 
beset  the  whigs  in  later  days  as  to  the  influence  of  the  foreigner 
and  the  rabble  on  the  future  of  the  republic  were  thus  far 
characteristic  only  of  the  despised  federalist  minority. 

The  part  which  the  newspaper  played  in  the  community  is 
an  interesting  one.  The  present  day  definition  of  news  was 
unknown  to  editors  who  thought  it  their  duty  to  keep  from  their 
readers  anything  that  might  be  considered  contrary  to  good 
manners  and  morals;  an  editor  might  even  rebuke  as  mere  idle 
curiosity  the  desire  for  the  details  of  murders  and  steamboat 
explosions.  '  The  paper's  main  function  was  to  furnish  a 
medium  of  polite  communications  from  the  editor  to  his 
patrons.  Usually  he  regaled  them  with  foreign  news,  accounts 
of  the  proceedings  of  congress,  and  the  state  general  assembly, 
with  occasional  speeches  made  in  congress,  political  articles, 
and  forecasts,  accounts  of  improvements  in  agriculture  or  manu- 
factures, and  moral  anecdotes  in  the  manner  of  Franklin, 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE          21 

interspersed  with  jokes  about  the  sea  serpent  —  matter  nearly 
all  obtained  by  clipping  from  papers  nearer  the  center  of  the 
great  world  or  of  the  United  States.  In  times  of  election, 
however,  politics  displaced  all  else. 

The  scissors  usually  supplied  the  literature,  which  was 
sentimental  in  imitation  of  Goldsmith,  humorous  after  the 
manner  of  Sterne,  or  romantic  in  the  fashion  of  the  author  of 
Waverley — in  any  case  distinctly  exotic  in  character.  This 
was  supplemented  by  local  contributions,  political,  controver- 
sial, and  humorous,  though  the  point  of  many  a  satire,  doubtless 
keen  enough  in  its  hour,  has  long  since  rusted  away  completely. 
On  the  whole  the  newspaper  was  much  less  a  suggestive  index 
to  the  intellectual  habits  and  tastes  of  the  country  than  it  was 
ten  years  later. 

The  economic  status  of  the  newspaper  was  usually  based 
on  the  possession  of  state  or  national  printing  contracts  or  on 
the  desire  for  them.  The  printing  week  by  week  in  their 
columns  of  national  laws  and  treaties  or  the  issuing  of  laws  and 
journals  of  the  state  general  assembly  made  the  newspaper 
business  profitable.  Editors  were,  in  many  cases,  itinerant  — 
editors  partly  by  grace  of  their  editorial  capacity,  partly  by  their 
knowledge  of  printing.  Such  men  were  free  lances  willing  to 
enter  the  pay  of  any  aspiring  politician  who  was  ready  to  pro- 
vide a  press  and  type,  usually  veterans  of  former  wars,  to  loan 
a  few  hundred  dollars,  and  to  drum  up  a  small  subscription  list. 
Without  the  bounty  of  public  printing,  newspapers  could  not 
live  save  by  subsidy.  Four  hundred  was  a  very  good  list  of 
subscribers;  and  subscriptions  often  ran  unpaid  for  years  de- 
spite the  pleadings,  threats,  and  blacklisting  resorted  to  by  the 
editor.  There  are  traces  of  other  intellectual  influences.  Lists 
of  books  advertised  for  sale  are  short  but  contain  the  titles  of 
some  good  books ;  and  no  doubt  the  few  persons  with  genuine 
tastes  for  good  reading  could  satisfy  them  as  well  as  if  they 
lived  in  the  east.  There  were  literary  and  debating  societies  in 
Fayette  and  in  two  neighboring  counties.  There  was  even  a 
Handel-Haydn  society.  That  an  outlet  to  spiritual  aspirations 


22  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

was  doubtless  offered  by  Masonry  is  indicated  by  the  St  John's 
Day  orations  published  from  time  to  time,  though  apparently 
Masonry  met  disapproval  from  a  section  of  the  clergy.28 

Such  systematic  education  as  the  state  afforded  was  supplied 
by  private  schools  and  for  a  price,  for  the  state  during  the  first 
decade  made  scarcely  any  use  of  its  endowment  from  the  federal 
government.  Some  of  the  schools  were  of  about  the  grade  of 
grammar  schools;  and  girls'  schools  where  needlework,  paint- 
ing, and  similar  subjects  were  taught  for  an  extra  charge  were 
not  uncommon.  Frequently  board  was  offered  also.  Charges 
for  tuition  varied  from  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents  to  seven 
dollars  a  quarter,  according  to  subjects  taught,  needlework  in 
girls'  schools  usually  being  an  extra. 

There  were  not  wanting,  however,  more  ambitious  estab- 
lishments. One  at  Salu  was  kept  by  a  New  England 
schoolma'am.  The  Reverend  Mr.  Desmoulin  had  a  school  in 
Kaskaskia  in  which  he  taught  Latin  and  French.  At  Ebenezer 
they  advertised  for  a  preceptor  who  was  qualified  to  teach 
Greek,  Latin,  and  the  higher  mathematics.  At  Galena  in  1829 
a  school  (Aratus  Kent's)  purported  to  teach  Latin  and  Greek. 
One  public  school  at  Alton  was  free  to  the  children  of  parents 
residing  in  the  corporation,  for  Alton  had  been  incorporated 
with  an  endowment  of  one  hundred  lots  for  religious  and  educa- 
tional purposes.29 

The  foundations  of  collegiate  education  were  laid  before 
the  end  of  the  period.  In  1827  the  indefatigable  John  Mason 
Peck  opened  a  seminary  at  Rock  Spring  as  a  theological  training 
school,  equipping  it  with  the  books  and  other  property  that  he 
had  collected  in  the  east.  It  was  intended  primarily  for  the 
education  of  ministers,  but  in  addition  it  offered  courses  in 
literature  and  tne  sciences.  At  a  meeting  at  Rock  Spring, 
January  i,  1827,  Peck  was  appointed  superintendent  and  agent 
to  obtain  funds.  It  was  decided  that  a  farm  for  student  labor 
be  operated  and  that  subscriptions  be  solicited  for  buildings 

28  Illinois  Gazette,  January  i,  December  2,  1820;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  May 
15,  1821 ;  Edtvardsville  Spectator,  July  3,  1821. 

29  Illinois  Intelligencer,  April  7,  1819. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE          23 

payable  in  provisions,  cattle,  labor,  books,  or  building  materials. 
Contribution  entitled  a  subscriber  to  send  his  children  or  wards 
without  charge  for  rent  or  for  the  use  of  the  library.  The 
school  was  to  have  a  theological  professor  and  one  for  mathe- 
matics, natural  philosophy,  and  languages.30 

Religion  came  to  be  the  most  universally  pervasive  intellec- 
tual force  of  the  frontier.  As  might  be  expected,  on  the  frontier 
the  first  tendency  was  toward  a  disregard  of  religious 
observances.  The  emigrant  from  the  older  settled  regions  left 
behind  him  the  machinery  and  the  establishment  of  sectarian 
religion.  Until  that  machinery  could  be  set  up  again  on  the 
frontier  he  lived  without  formal  worship  and  often  for  the 
time  at  least  the  sense  of  the  need  of  it  passed  out  of  his  life. 
In  cases  where  observance  had  been  due  to  social  convention 
there  was  no  doubt  a  welcome  feeling  of  freedom  and  restraint. 

Normally  the  frontiersman  was  unreligious.  Birkbeck 
noted  with  relish  the  absence  of  ceremony  at  baptism  or  funeral 
and  the  tolerance  of  all  backwoods  preachers  alike,  whether 
they  raved  or  reasoned.  Sunday  was  a  day  for  riot  and  dis- 
order. Other  observers  looked  with  horror  on  such  a  state  of 
things,  did  their  best  to  set  up  at  least  stated  regular  worship, 
and  noted  an  improvement  in  morals  as  a  result.31  Yet  for 
years  the  riot  and  license  of  a  Shawneetown  Sabbath  was  a 
shocking  thing  to  a  prim  New  England  bride.  Further,  if  one 
may  believe  the  early  preachers  of  both  Baptists  and  Metho- 
dists, deistic  and  atheistic  belief  flourished  on  the  frontier 
among  even  the  better  classes.  Evidence  is  not  lacking  to  cor- 
roborate the  frequency  of  this  attitude  of  mind,  which 
accentuated  the  sharp  line  drawn  among  men  between  the  re- 
ligious and  the  irreligious,  the  good  and  the  wicked.  The 
latter  term  connoted  those  who  did  not  fall  in  with  the  beliefs 
and  practices  of  the  denominationally  pious.  The  idea  of  the 
sheep  and  goats  divided  by  observances  and  beliefs,  possibly 

30  Ediuardsville  Spectator,  February  19,  1820;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  March 
24,  1824;  Babcock,  Memoir  of  John  Mason  Peck,  225-228. 

31  Birkbeck,  Letters  from  Illinois,  24-25 ;  Flower,  Letters  from  Illinois,  124- 
125. 


24  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

also  by  such  habits  as  profane  swearing  and  drinking,  persists 
in  the  pioneer  narratives.  "A  man  of  good  character,"  wrote 
Fordham,  "is  an  acquisition;  not  that  there  is  a  small  propor- 
tion of  such  men,  but  because  the  bad  are  as  undisguisedly  bad, 
as  their  opposites  are  professedly  good.  This  is  not  the  land 
of  Hypocrisy.  It  would  not  here  have  its  reward.  Religion 
is  not  the  road  to  wordly  respectability,  nor  a  possession  of  it 
the  cloak  of  immorality."  32 

Into  this  western  wilderness  containing  many  who  had 
grown  accustomed  to  the  lack  of  religious  food,  many  who 
openly  professed  diabolism,  and  many  who  yearned  for  re- 
ligious observances,  the  organizations  of  the  Protestant 
denominations  threw  themselves. 

At  every  point  the  Methodist  order  was  best  equipped  for 
waging  a  systematic  and  thorough  campaign  against  the  in- 
different and  hostile.  Its  organization  was  ideal  for  such  a 
purpose.  In  effect,  under  the  executive  leadership  of  the 
bishops  of  the  church,  elected  by  delegates  from  local  confer- 
ences to  the  general  conference,  but  holding  for  life,  it  was  a 
self-perpetuating  aristocracy  of  the  traveling  elders  organized 
in  their  various  conferences;  while  in  its  quarterly  meetings, 
love  feasts,  class  meetings,  and  the  like,  it  gave  opportunity  for 
lesser  officers,  local  preachers,  and  class  leaders,  and  even  the 
rank  and  file  to  bear  their  share  in  their  local  government  under 
the  guidance  of  the  traveling  eldership.  For  a  man  to  be 
"settled"  was  to  lose  his  place  in  the  government;  he  could 
hold  his  position  in  this  aristocracy  with  its  ridiculously  meager 
stipend  only  by  continuing  itinerant  until  under  burdens  that 
equalled  St.  Paul's  his  strength  gave  out. 

The  whole  organization  was  an  elastic  one,  capable  of 
adaptation  to  the  changing  march  of  the  frontier  and  yet  always 
ready  to  respond  to  the  touch  of  the  executive  officers.  The 
best  men,  transferred  from  circuit  to  circuit  year  by  year,  could 
be  thrown  at  one  community  after  another  until  vast  numbers 
of  people  at  some  time  had  come  under  the  influence  of  their 

32  Fordham,  Personal  Narrative,  128. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE          25 

preaching.  The  faith  and  theology  of  the  Methodist  rejected 
the  stern  predestinarian  doctrine  of  Calvin  and  proclaimed  a 
divine  grace  freely  offered.  They  looked  toward  the  sudden 
working  of  the  grace  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  great  audiences 
gathered  to  hear  impassioned  preaching.  The  great  Methodist 
preachers  of  the  backwoods  were  men  with  a  tremendous  gift 
of  eloquence  which  could  sway  congregations  back  and  forth 
like  fields  of  waving  grain  while  sinners  by  the  hundreds  "  fell 
slain,"  as  the  preachers  said,  and  were  led  to  the  mourners' 
bench  to  be  exhorted  and  prayed  with  till  the  divine  ecstasy  took 
the  form  of  rapture  and  peace.  This  power  the  ministers  com- 
monly used  and  struggled  for,  and  they  were  depressed  when 
they  could  not  exercise  it.  Its  importance  in  the  development 
of  the  church  was  tremendous.  Once  the  preaching  of  Peter 
Cartwright  or  James  Axley  had  wrought  this  experience  in  a 
man  the  local  organization  of  exhorters,  preachers,  and  class 
leaders  was  at  hand  to  lead  and  instruct  him. 

The  men  who  were  the  most  successful  in  the  struggle  for 
the  conquest  of  the  frontier  to  Christ  were  a  distinct  type,  un- 
learned, well-nigh  unschooled,  only  a  stage  or  two  above 
illiteracy.  They  had  a  strong  contempt  for  college-bred 
ministers  as  unfit  to  follow  in  their  footsteps,  unable  with  their 
written  sermons  to  get  the  effects  that  the  native  eloquence  of 
the  pioneer  attained.  Men  who  had  spent  four  years  in  rubbing 
their  backs  against  the  walls  of  a  college33  were  not  the  men  to 
ride  wretched  roads  week  in  and  week  out,  swim  their  horses 
over  creeks,  and  by  address,  by  stratagem,  or  by  force  of  su- 
perior muscle  defeat  the  efforts  of  the  rowdies  to  break  up 
camp  meetings.  The  pioneer  preached  a  Christianity  emotional 
rather  than  intellectual.  His  exegesis  was  often  astonishing. 
In  the  sermon  attributed  to  Axley  preached  from  the  text 
"Alexander  the  Coppersmith  did  me  much  evil,"  Alexander 
figures  as  a  reformed  still-maker  who  turned  class  leader,  but 
who  under  the  influence  of  a  heavy  peach  crop,  backslid,  and 
made  stills  for  the  brethren  to  the  destruction  of  sobriety  in 

33  Sturtevant,  Autobiography,  162. 


26  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  neighborhood  Yet  the  pioneer  preachers  worked  a  revo- 
lution in  the  moral  life  of  the  communities  they  served. 
Methodists  for  many  years  were  known  by  a  plainness  of  dress. 
Wherever  they  were,  Axley  and  Cartwright  on  all  occasions 
struck  straight  from  the  shoulder  at  the  vice  of  liquor  drinking 
and  the  sin  of  slaveholding. 

The  Baptist  polity,  on  the  other  hand,  represented  the 
natural  centrifugal  tendency  of  the  frontier.  The  wilderness 
congregations  united  by  loose  associational  ties  tended  to  split 
or  to  divide.  The  application  of  the  faulty  logic  of  untrained 
minds  to  the  interpretation  of  the  doubtful  things  of  scripture 
was  continually  resulting  in  the  production  of  strange  and  weird 
doctrines;  and  since  there  was  lacking  the  organization  by 
which  the  Methodist  church  secured  uniformity,  the  Baptists 
were  in  their  remote  congregations  likely  to  become  far  sepa- 
rated from  each  other  in  matters  of  belief  and  practice. 

Among  the  various  denominations  in  Illinois  —  Baptist, 
Methodist,  and  Presbyterian — differences  of  opinion  arose  in 
general  upon  the  various  doctrines  of  predestination  and  of 
baptism.  These,  however,  were  only  the  starting  points  for 
subdivision.  Thus  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians  in  their  prac- 
tice came  somewhat  near  to  Methodism,  while  they  were 
scarcely  Calvinistic  in  their  beliefs.  The  Campbellites,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  non-Calvinistic  Baptists. 

When  Illinois  became  a  state,  Methodism  had  long  been 
established  in  it.  At  that  time  the  district  of  Illinois  was  united 
with  the  Missouri  conference,  and  there  were  a  presiding  elder 
and  seven  circuit  preachers.  The  church  had  a  membership  of 
1,435  whites  and  17  blacks.  In  1824  a  separate  Illinois  con- 
ference including  a  part  of  Indiana  was  formed.  Illinois  itself 
had  a  presiding  elder  and  nine  circuits  with  eleven  preachers. 
At  that  time  the  membership  had  increased  to  3,705  whites  and 

27  colored.    Jesse  Walker,  the  indefatigable  preacher  who  had 
first  worked  in  Illinois  in  1806,  was  assigned  as  missionary  in 
the  settlements  between  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers  and 
Fort  Clark.     There  he  formed  the  first  class  at  Peoria.     In 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE          27 

1825  he  was  assigned  as  missionary  to  the  Potawatomi  located 
on  the  Fox  river  above  the  Illinois.  The  expense  of  the  enter- 
prise was  $1,000  a  year.  In  1829,  however,  when  their  lands 
were  sold,  the  mission  among  the  Potawatomi  was  abandoned, 
and  missions  at  Galena  and  Fox  River  were  opened.34 

The  only  other  denomination  of  comparable  strength  in 
the  state  was  the  Baptist.  In  1825  the  Baptists  were  estimated 
to  have  fifty-eight  preachers  and  exhorters,  and  the  Emanci- 
pating Brethren  and  the  Christian  Body  had  thirteen  each.35 
In  the  midst  of  the  individualism  characteristic  of  the  denomina- 
tion there  stands  out  the  figure  of  one  man,  John  Mason  Peck. 
Peck  was  born  in  1789  in  the  Congregational  atmosphere  of 
Connecticut.  The  birth  of  his  first  child  in  1 8 10  first  discovered 
to  Peck  his  disbelief  in  efficacy  of  pedobaptism.  Becoming  at 
length  a  Baptist  by  conviction,  he  began  to  preach  a  little  and 
in  1813  was  ordained.  In  1816,  to  prepare  himself  for  a  mis- 
sionary career,  he  studied  in  Philadelphia,  gaining  some 
knowledge  of  Hebrew  and  a  greater  mastery  of  Latin  and 
Greek,  as  well  as  some  acquaintance  with  medicine.  In  1817 
he  was  dispatched  by  the  Baptist  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
as  missionary  to  the  west,  where  he  settled  himself  for  the  time 
at  St.  Louis.  His  duties  soon  carried  him  to  the  Illinois  side  of 
the  river.  In  1820  the  board  abandoned  the  St.  Louis  mission. 
In  1822  the  Massachusetts  Missionary  Society  appointed  Peck 
a  missionary;  and  in  April  of  that  year  he  removed  to  Illinois, 
still  keeping  an  eye  to  the  maintenance  of  his  hard-won  foothold 
in  St.  Louis. 

Peck's  activity  was  tireless.  From  the  time  of  his  coming 
to  the  west  he  rode  circuit  as  assiduously  as  a  traveling  Metho- 
dist elder,  braving  the  dangers  and  hardships  of  the  wilderness. 
With  indefatigable  Yankee  energy  he  was  ever  founding, 
establishing,  and  sustaining  Sunday  schools,  Bible  societies, 
missionary  societies,  and  their  auxiliaries,  laboring  for  better 
schools,  striving  with  the  perversions  and  oddities  of  doctrine 

3*  Lcaton,  Methodism  in  Illinois,  48,  151-152,  213. 
35  Edtuardsville  Spectator,  October  22,  1825. 


28  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

ithat  had  grown  up  in  the  wilderness.  He  was  not  successful  in 
avoiding  the  excitement  of  enmity  among  the  Baptists,  partly 
as  the  result  of  the  jealousy  of  local  illiterate  preachers  who 
feared  that  the  better  educated  missionary  preacher  might 
lessen  their  prestige  among  the  people,  partly  from  a  distrust 
that  the  mission  system  was  an  approximation  to  Methodism 
and  that  the  organization  of  general  societies  was  an  encroach- 
ment on  the  autonomy  of  the  individual  church  governments. 
Peck  soon  had  a  growing  opposition  to  contend  with  in  Illinois. 
His  opponents  in  clumsy  satires  made  light  of  educated  minis- 
ters. They  opposed  all  concerted  denominational  methods, 
such  as  the  establishment  of  Bible  societies,  missionary  societies, 
and  Sunday  schools.  This  opposition  they  justified  partly,  one 
would  judge,  on  predestinarian  grounds,  considering  that  such 
aids  to  salvation  were  flying  in  the  face  of  divine  election.  A 
further  development  of  this  opposition  was  the  "two  seed" 
doctrine  of  Daniel  Parker,  at  one  time  Illinois  senator,  which 
predicated  the  fact  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  and  the  seed  of 
the  serpent  were  fixed  to  all  eternity,  declining  any  attempts  of 
the  missionary  methods  to  change  the  one  to  the  other.36 

Sometimes  the  opposition  took  unusual  or  interesting  forms. 
In  Sangamon  county  in  1823  an  association  debarred  from 
membership  any  Baptist  holding  membership  in  a  missionary 
society.  In  the  legislature  in  1828  Cartwright  and  James 
Lemen  sponsored  a  bill  for  the  prevention  of  vice  and  im- 
morality, and  a  member  proceeded  to  amend  the  clause 
prohibiting  the  disturbing  of  congregations  in  this  fashion: 
"  that  if  any  person  on  the  Sabbath  or  first  .day  of  the  week, 
should  attempt  to  disturb  the  peace  or  good  order  of  any  con- 
gregation or  body  of  people  gathered  together  for  the  purpose 
of  worshiping  Almighty  God,  by  offering  to  sell  pamphlets  or 
books  of  any  description  whatever;  or  by  begging  money,  or 

36  Babcock,  Memoir  of  John  Mason  Peck,  12-14,  30,  106-110,  172.  See  Illi- 
nois Intelligencer,  December  7,  1822,  for  a  letter  by  Parker,  declaring  a  Baptist 
paper  was  full  of  philosophy  and  enticing  words  of  men's  wisdom.  Training 
preachers  he  pronounced  a  mark  of  the  beast.  His  declaration  that  not  one.  as- 
sociation in  five  in  the  west  corresponded  with  the  Board  of  Missions  is  inter- 
esting. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE          29 

any  other  thing  for  the  support  of  Missionary  Societies,  Bible 
Societies,  or  Sunday  Schools,  shall  be  fined  any  sum  not  more 
than  $15,  nor  less  than  $5."  37  Strangely  enough  twelve  votes 
were  mustered  in  the  house  of  representatives  for  this  amend- 
ment. Occasionally  a  charge  of  attempts  to  unite  church  and 
state  was  used  against  some  particular  candidate.  It  was 
undoubtedly  true  that  appeals  were  occasionally  made  to  re- 
ligious people  to  vote  against  "  an  enemy  to  religion."  John 
Russell  was  several  times  attacked  on  charges  that  he  wished  to 
set  up  Presbyterianism  as  the  state  religion  and  the  same 
charge  was  frequently  brought  against  S.  H.  Thompson  with 
reference  to  his  Methodist  connections.  The  supporters  of  a 
convention  in  1824  attempted  to  argue  that  the  Methodists 
were  trying  to  run  the  state.38 

Other  denominations  in  Illinois  were  of  minor  importance. 
In  1825  it  was  said  that  there  were  fourteen  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  ministers  and  two  Presbyterian,  with  one  each  for 
the  Covenanters,  Dunkards,  and  Independents.  In  Bond 
county  in  1824  it  was  said  that  the  Methodists,  Presbyterians, 
and  Cumberland  Presbyterians  would  frequently  unite  in 
services.39  There  was  enough  Universalism  to  cause  much  an- 
noyance to  the  orthodox  ministers.  Catholic  activity,  at  first 
confined  to  a  few  French  parishes  and  missions  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  state,  was,  in  the  late  twenties  and  early  thirties, 
beginning  to  follow  the  thickening  population  into  central  and 
northern  Illinois. 

As  a  corollary  to  the  efforts  of  distinctly  denominational 
religion  on  the  frontier  must  be  noted  the  activities  resulting  in 
the  spread  of  Sunday  schools  and  Bible  societies.  It  is  said 
that  the  first  Sunday  school  in  Illinois  was  established  at  Alton 
in  May  of  1819.  In  1821  a  female  society  at  Edwardsville 
had  been  in  operation  over  a  year.  In  1822  the  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen of  Vandalia  were  asked  to  meet  to  form  a  Sunday 
school.  In  1824  societies  to  promote  the  formation  of  Sunday 

37  H ouse  Journal,  1828-1829,   i   session,  78. 

38  Illinois  Intelligencer,  July  27,  1822,  December  9,  1825. 

39  Ibid.,  November  12,  1824. 


30  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

schools  were  established  in  Greene,  Madison,  Sangamon,  Mor- 
gan, and  St.  Clair  counties,  as  well  as  in  a  few  others.  The  total 
number  of  schools  was  thirty-five  with  1,047  scholars,  who  had 
recited  according  to  report,  82,441  verses,  the  Bible  verses 
memorized  being  the  important  quantitative  unit  of  measure. 
The  purpose  of  the  schools  was  to  furnish  a  little  education  in 
communities  that  could  not  sustain  ordinary  schools,  to  teach 
reading,  instill  moral  habits,  induce  a  due  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  but  chiefly  to  commit  scripture  to  memory.  In  1826  a 
general  Sunday  School  Union  for  Illinois  and  Missouri  was 
formed,  which  in  its  second  annual  report,  claimed  77  schools, 
340  teachers  and  superintendents,  and  2,546  scholars  in  Illinois. 
It  planned  to  establish  depositories  of  books  at  Kaskaskia, 
Shawneetown,  Vandalia,  and  Springfield.  Its  appeal  was  to 
all  denominations.  Apparently  both  the  county  and  the  state 
societies  were  founded  under  Peck's  leadership  in  the  hope  of 
checking  the  anti-mission  movement.  In  December  of  1823, 
perhaps  under  his  guidance  also,  Bible  societies  were  formed  in 
Greene  and  Madison  counties;  in  1824  one  was  also  formed  in 
Bond  county.  In  1825  there  were  said  to  be  twenty-two  auxil- 
iaries and  branch  Bible  societies  in  the  state.40  These  societies 
appear  to  have  encountered  opposition  from  the  same  source 
as  that  to  missions,  even  in  such  an  important  task  as  the  distri- 
bution of  Bibles.  In  1826  it  was  estimated  that  in  Madison 
county  there  were  720  families  in  which  were  3,237  persons 
able  to  read  and  27  families  in  which  no  one  could  read.  There 
were  79  families  in  which  some  person  could  read  and  which 
had  no  Bibles.  In  1828  a  state  Bible  society,  on  the  call  of  the 
Bond  county  society,  was  formed  at  Shoal  Creek. 

With  a  purpose  closely  akin  to  these  the  American  Tract 
Society  depository  was  founded  in  Greenville  in  1824  and  1825 
with  William  M.  Stewart  as  agent;  Bond  county,  it  may  be 
noted,  seemed  to  take  a  prominent  part  in  many  enterprises  of 
the  sort.  In  November  of  1824  a  temperance  society  was 

40  Edwardsville  Spectator,  October  22,  1825;  Babcock,  Memoir  of  John 
Mason  Peck,  185,  192;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  August  28,  1821. 


THE    LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE          31 

formed  there  which  a  year  later  served  as  the  nucleus  of  a  state 
society;  the  members  pledged  themselves  to  abstain  from  offer- 
ing liquor  at  house  raisings,  a  habit  apparently  already  frowned 
upon  in  the  county.  They  attacked  the  use  of  liquor  upon  the 
ground,  familiar  enough  nowadays,  that  it  was  the  fruitful 
source  of  idleness,  profanity,  and  crime,  depicting  drunkenness 
as  a  vice  that  produced  tenfold  more  misery  than  stealing  or 
dueling,  caused  10,000  deaths  a  year  in  the  United  States,  and 
wasted  $12,000,000  directly  for  spirits  and  $60,000,000  in- 
directly through  its  use.  The  society,  however,  did  not  insist 
upon  prohibition  but  rather  upon  the  barring  from  public  office 
all  those  addicted  to  strong  drink.41 

Crude  and  artificial  as  often  were  the  forces  promoting  a 
higher  culture  on  the  frontier,  one  feels  as  he  takes  his  leave  of 
the  period  no  reason  to  regret  their  work.  The  virtues  of  man 
living  in  the  state  of  nature  are  alluring,  but  an  analysis  of  the 
social  life  of  the  frontier  discloses  nothing  of  good  that 
necessarily  must  be  lost  in  a  change  to  a  higher  civilization  and 
much  that  might  well  be  replaced  by  something  better.  The 
neighborliness  that  found  expression  in  the  barn  raising  does 
not  seem  so  great  when  compared  with  the  every  day  acts  of 
kindness  that  flourish  in  a  rural  community  today,  when  the 
comparative  value  of  time  and  labor  in  the  one  and  the  other 
case  is  considered.  Side  by  side  with  the  honesty  and  open- 
hearted  hospitality  existed  the  villainy  of  the  scoundrel  who  had 
fled  to  the  backwoods  to  evade  the  law.  The  summary  punish- 
ment inflicted  on  the  outlaw  by  the  backwoodsman  was  well 
replaced  by  the  due  forms  of  law.  The  squalid  surroundings 
of  the  backwoods  cabin  happily  disappeared  before  the  trim 
farmhouse.  And  even  the  emotionalism  or  dogmatism  of  the 
early  preacher  compared  favorably  with  the  intellectual  dark- 
ness of  the  years  before  Peck  and  Cartwright,  or  the  intellectual 
self-complacency  of  the  shallow  freethinker.  A  young  Eng- 
lishman at  first  fired  with  enthusiasm  for  the  free  life  of  the 
frontier  finally  came  to  see  in  the  freedom  little  but  lawless- 

41  Illinois  Intelligencer,  November  13,  1824,  April  21,  1827. 


32  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

ness.  On  the  page  after  that  on  which  he  records  the  killing 
of  six  Indians,  men  and  women,  on  English  Prairie  in  the  spring 
of  1817,  he  wrote  "Instead  of  being  more  virtuous,  as  he  is 
less  refined,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  man's  virtues  are  like 
the  fruits  of  the  earth,  only  excellent  when  subjected  to  culture. 
The  force  of  this  simile  you  will  never  feel,  until  you  ride  in 
these  woods  over  wild  strawberries,  which  die  your  horse's 
fetlocks  like  blood  yet  are  insipid  in  flavour;  till  you  have  seen 
waggon  loads  of  grapes,  choked  by  the  bramble  and  the 
poisonous  vine;  till  you  find  peaches,  tasteless  as  a  turnip,  and 
roses  throwing  their  leaves  of  every  shade  upon  the  winds, 
with  scarcely  a  scent  upon  them.  Tis  the  hand  of  man  that 
makes  the  wilderness  shine.  His  footsteps  must  be  found  in 
the  scene  that  is  supremely  &  lastingly  beautiful."  42 

*2  Fordham,  Personal  Narrative,  225. 


II.     THE  NEW  STATE  GOVERNMENT, 
1818-1828 

THE  constitution  of  1818  and  the  laws  under  which  the 
people  of  the  state  lived  for  the  first  ten  years  of  its 
existence  afford  an  interesting  elaboration  and  commentary  on 
certain  phases  of  the  general  life  of  the  people  already  de- 
scribed. Such  material,  of  course,  has  to  be  used  cautiously; 
the  passage  of  a  law  by  no  means  implies  that  the  condition 
toward  which  it  is  apparently  directed  prevailed  to  any  con- 
siderable extent.  Without  some  such  study,  however,  the 
picture  of  early  Illinois  would  be  incomplete.  Reserving  the 
financial  legislation  to  a  later  chapter,  the  important  elements 
in  Illinois'  early  legal  history  will  be  next  considered. 

The  government  of  Illinois  in  its  constitution  and  in  its 
tendency  for  the  first  fifteen  or  twenty  years  after  1818  was  a 
government  by  the  legislature.  The  observer  is  impressed  not 
only  by  the  extent  of  the  power  exercised  by  the  general 
assembly  in  comparison  with  that  exercised  by  the  judiciary  and 
the  executive,  but  by  its  assumption  of  the  choice  of  local  officers 
which  are  now  by  almost  universal  practice  chosen  by  individual 
communities. 

The  legislature  by  the  terms  of  the  constitution  was  to  meet 
biennially;  there  were  to  be  between  one-third  and  one-half  as 
many  senators  as  representatives.  In  practice  the  first  and 
second  general  assemblies  consisted  of  fourteen  senators  and 
twenty-nine  representatives;  there  was  a  slight  increase  there- 
after until  1 83 1.1  The  representatives  were  elected  annually 
for  each  assembly  and  the  senators  for  terms  of  four  years, 
half  of  the  senate  retiring  every  two  years.  In  addition  to  its 

1  Up  to  that  time  the  senate  regularly  had  eighteen  members  excepting  the 
fourth  with  nineteen.  The  house  was  composed  of  thirty-six  increasing  to 
thirty-seven  in  the  third  and  forty  in  the  fourth. 

33 


34  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

powers  of  legislation  the  assembly  enjoyed  the  usual  powers 
in  impeachment,  counted  the  votes  in  gubernatorial  elections, 
elected  members  of  the  supreme  court,  appointed  the  auditor, 
attorney-general,  state  treasurer,  state  printer,  and  other 
necessary  state  officers.  By  a  two-thirds  vote  it  could  submit 
to  the  voters  the  question  of  calling  a  convention  to  amend  the 
constitution.  The  senate  could  pass  on  the  governor's  nominee 
for  secretary  of  state  and  had  a  similar  voice  in  the  selection  of 
other  officers  created  by  the  constitution  without  a  specific  pro- 
vision for  their  election. 

On  the  legislative  department  the  constitution  grafted  a 
very  curious  body,  almost  indeed  a  third  house  —  the  council 
of  revision.  The  origin  of  this  institution  was  generally  traced 
to  a  similar  one  in  New  York,  and  when  it  became  unpopular 
Elias  Kent  Kane  was  usually  charged  by  his  enemies  with  re- 
sponsibility for  it.  The  council  was  composed  of  the  governor 
and  the  justices  of  the  supreme  court;  its  duty  was  to  examine 
all  laws  passed  by  the  house  and  senate  and  to  return  such  as  it 
disapproved,  which  last  could  be  passed  over  its  veto  by  a 
majority  of  the  members  in  each  house.  In  practice  the  insti- 
tution prevented  some  useless  legislation  by  calling  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  legislature  technical  defects  in  laws  passed;  but  the 
council's  vetoes  of  laws  on  grounds  of  public  policy  or  of 
unconstitutionality  were  apt  to  be  futile  or  merely  irritating, 
because  legislators  in  early  Illinois  were  rarely  absent  during 
the  session  and  the  majority  of  members  elected  in  each  house 
required  to  pass  a  bill  over  the  veto  of  the  council  was  usually 
only  one  or  two  greater  than  the  vote  by  which  it  originally 
passed.  Furthermore,  the  supreme  court  in  deciding  cases  in- 
volving the  constitutionality  of  state  laws  was  continually 
embarrassed  by  the  fact  that  the  justices  in  the  council  of  re- 
vision had  already  passed  on  them.  This  function  of  the 
justices  undoubtedly  heightened  the  political  character,  already 
too  apparent,  of  the  early  Illinois  judiciary. 

The  powers  of  the  executive  of  the  state  were  defined  by  the 
constitution  within  narrow  limits.  The  governor  could  pardon 


THE    NEW   STATE    GOVERNMENT        35 

and  reprieve  and  could  nominate  to  the  senate  for  appointment 
all  officers  whose  choice  was  not  otherwise  prescribed  by  the 
constitution  or  whose  functions  were  not  exclusively  local.  He 
was  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the  state  and 
of  the  militia.  In  case  of  his  impeachment,  resignation,  or 
absence  from  the  state  he  was  to  be  succeeded  by  the  lieutenant 
governor,  who  normally  presided  over  the  senate.  The  veto 
power,  however,  which  has  come  to  be  an  important  function 
of  the  governorship,  he  could  exercise  only  by  his  single  vote 
in  the  council  of  revision. 

The  judiciary  was  only  sketched  in  by  the  constitution.  In- 
ferior courts  could  be  established  and  their  judges  appointed 
by  the  legislature  and  removed  by  it  on  the  formal  application 
of  two-thirds  of  each  house.  The  supreme  court  till  1824  was 
to  consist  of  four  justices  chosen  by  joint  ballot  of  the  assembly, 
and  charged  with  both  circuit  and  supreme  court  duties.  At  the 
end  of  that  period  the  legislature  might  remodel  the  supreme 
and  circuit  courts  and  elect  judges  who  were  to  hold  office  during 
good  behavior.  As  might  have  been  foreseen  this  gave  a 
political  cast  to  the  first  supreme  bench;  and  it  is  not  surprising 
that  in  1822  two  justices  should  have  been  openly  candidates 
for  governor  and  a  third  a  potential  candidate  for  either  the 
governorship  or  the  senate. 

The  court  as  first  constituted  consisted  of  Joseph  Phillips, 
Thomas  C.  Browne,  William  P.  Foster,  and  John  Reynolds. 
Of  these  men  Foster  never  acted  and  was  succeeded  by  William 
Wilson ;  Phillips  resigned  in  1822  and  was  replaced  by  Thomas 
Reynolds.  In  1825  the  legislature  reconstituted  the  court  with 
a  chief  justice,  three  associate  justices,  and  five  circuit  judges. 
The  justices  elected  under  this  law,  however  —  Samuel  D. 
Lockwood,  Theophilus  W.  Smith,  Thomas  C.  Browne,  and 
William  Wilson  —  by  an  act  of  1827,  were  compelled  to  return 
to  circuit  duties;  and  the  circuit  judges  were  legislated  out  of 
office.2 

2  In  this  and  in  following  chapters  when  the  date  of  a  law  is  given  in  the 
text,  no  further  reference  is  made. 


36  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

The  displaced  circuit  judges  drew  up  a  communication  to 
the  senate  protesting  against  the  act  as  calculated  to  displace 
the  balance  of  the  three  divisions  of  government  and  leave  the 
tenure  of  the  judiciary  at  the  whim  of  the  legislature.  This 
was  the  main  argument  advanced  by  their  supporters;  while 
those  who  favored  the  abolition  of  their  offices  urged  economy 
and  the  advantage  of  keeping  the  supreme  justices  fresh  in  the 
law  by  service  in  the  circuits,  instead  of  leaving  them  to  be  in 
session  twenty-eight  days  in  a  year  and  a  half  to  decide  sixty- 
three  cases.  They  discounted  the  argument  that  the  benefit  of 
appeal  would  be  destroyed  by  referring  to  the  supposedly 
similar  experience  of  Great  Britain,  the  United  States  and  New 
York  state.  On  one  ground  or  another  probably  the  majority 
of  the  people  were  in  favor  of  the  repeal.3 

Local  government  in  Illinois  for  its  first  decade  was  as  rudi- 
mentary as  the  state  government.  The  constitution  had  little 
to  say  on  the  subject.  It  provided  that  three  county  commis- 
sioners be  elected  in  each  county  to  transact  all  county  business 
but  left  their  duties  and  term  of  service  to  be  regulated  by  law. 
The  first  general  assembly  expanded  the  constitutional  pro- 
vision regarding  county  commissioners  by  defining  their  duties 
as  follows :  "  That  said  court  in  each  county,  shall  have  juris- 
diction in  all  matters  and  things  concerning  the  county  revenue, 
and  regulating  and  imposing  the  county  tax,  and  shall  have 
power  to  grant  license  for  ferries  and  for  taverns,  and  all  other 
licenses  and  things  that  may  bring  in  a  county  revenue;  and 
shall  have  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  of  public  roads,  canals,  turn- 
pike roads,  and  toll  bridges,  where  the  law  does  not  prohibit 
the  said  jurisdiction  of  said  courts ;  and  shall  have  power  and 
jurisdiction  to  issue  all  kinds  of  writs,  warrants,  process,  and 
proceedings,  by  the  clerk  throughout  the  state,  to  the  necessary 
execution  of  the  power  and  jurisdiction  with  which  this  court 
is  or  may  be  vested  by  law."  The  court,  it  was  expressly 
stated,  had  no  legal  jurisdiction  in  the  ordinary  sense,  "but 

3  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  6,  27,  18*7;  Ed<wards<ville  Spectator,  Feb- 
ruary 25,  September  29,  1826;  Illinois  Gazette,  October  14,  December  2,  16,  1826. 


THE   NEW   STATE   GOVERNMENT        37 

said  court  shall  have  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  where  the  matter 
or  thing  brought  before  the  said  court,  relates  to  the  public 
concerns  of  the  county,  collectively,  and  all  county  business." 
The  function  of  the  court  was  clearly  designed  to  be  adminis- 
trative.4 This  act,  however,  did  not  specify  the  term  of  office 
of  the  members  and  indeed  none  did  until  1829. 

Of  other  county  offices  the  sheriffs  and  coroners  were  by 
constitutional  provision  to  be  elected  biennially.  Notaries 
public,  public  administrators,  and  recorders  were  appointed  by 
the  governor  and  senate,  surveyors  by  nomination  of  the  house 
of  representatives  to  the  senate.  The  first  general  assembly 
assigned  probate  functions  to  the  county  commissioners;  the 
third  to  a  probate  judge  who  was  to  hold  office  till  the  end  of 
the  next  general  assembly.  In  1825  the  assembly  installed  new 
probate  judges  elected  by  the  legislature  on  joint  ballot.  The 
county  commissioners  and  the  circuit  judge  both  appointed 
their  own  clerks.  In  most  cases  the  returns  from  fees  were 
small  and  the  county  offices  themselves  were  held  as  minor 
prizes  and  rewards  in  the  political  game.  Very  often,  especially 
in  the  case  of  a  new  county,  several  of  these  offices  were  held 
by  the  same  man.  "  The  offices  in  a  new  county  "  was  a  not  un- 
common political  proffer  or  request.  In  such  cases  through 
long  tenure  county  clerkships  sometimes  became  almost  private 
political  freeholds  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  law 
recognized  little  or  no  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  county 
to  provide  clerks  with  offices  or  equipment.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  legislature  allowed  to  the  people  of  the  counties  a  voice 
in  the  selection  of  few  of  their  officers.5 

As  defined  by  the  constitution  and  the  earlier  statutes  there 
was  nothing  unusual  in  the  duties  of  the  Illinois  justices  of  the 
peace.  By  the  act  of  1 8 19  they  were  to  be  elected  by  the  senate 
on  the  nomination  of  the  house  of  representatives;  constables 
were  to  be  appointed  annually  by  the  county  commissioners' 

4  Laws  of  1819,  p.  175. 

5  Laws  of  1819,  p.  18,  31;  Laws  of  1821,  p.  62;  Laws  of  1823,  p.  87,132;  Laws 
of  1825,  p.  70;  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  397-398;  Reynolds  to  Grant,  1830, 
in  Eddy  manuscripts. 


38  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

courts.  In  1827,  however,  the  law  was  changed  to  provide  for 
their  election  by  districts.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  justice  as 
first  defined  extended  to  civil  matters  not  exceeding  one  hundred 
dollars,  with  appeal  in  all  cases  in  which  over  four  dollars  was 
at  stake.  The  act  of  1819  gave  him  general  powers  in  criminal 
cases  to  commit  for  all  offenses  and  to  free  on  recognizance  in 
minor  cases.  He  was  also  given  a  rather  vague  jurisdiction  in 
criminal  matters,  which  later  acts  rendered  more  specific.  He 
could  commit  vagrants  and  could  discharge  apprentices  from 
their  masters,  subject  to  appeal,  or  could  correct  them  for  mis- 
behavior.6 

One  minor  function  of  local  government  may  here  be  dis- 
cussed. Poor  relief  was  provided  for  by  a  statute  of  1819 
which  called  for  the  annual  appointment  of  overseers  of  the 
poor  in  each  township  by  the  county  commissioners.  They 
were  directed  to  farm  out  the  poor  and  to  apprentice  poor  chil- 
dren, and  they  might  in  behalf  of  the  poor  administer  bequests 
not  aggregating  in  yearly  value  $1,200.  There  were  added 
elaborate  provisions  as  to  how  a  person  might  obtain  a  settle- 
ment in  the  district  and  penalties  for  being  without  one,  which 
sound  strangely  on  the  frontier.  Indeed  the  whole  matter  was 
one  of  form  only  and  Governor  Coles,  in  answering  a  query 
from  New  York  regarding  the  Illinois  poor  system,  was  happy 
to  be  able  to  remark  that  in  no  county  had  the  poor  been  suffi- 
cient in  numbers  to  exercise  the  statutes.7 

The  constitution  had  left  the  appointment  or  election  of 
many  officers  now  chosen  by  popular  vote  in  the  hands  of  the 
governor  and  the  general  assembly.  For  the  limited  number 
left  to  the  popular  choice  any  male  white  inhabitant  above  the 
age  of  twenty-one  residing  in  the  state  six  months  was  entitled 
to  vote.  For  members  of  the  general  assembly  the  constitution 
prescribed  the  payment  of  a  state  or  county  tax  and  United 
States  citizenship  and  for  the  governor  United  States  citizen- 
ship for  thirty  years.  The  specific  laws  relating  to  elections 

6  Laws  of  1819,  p.  5,  88,  162,  186-195. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  127-139;  Laivs  of  1827,  p.  309-310;  Greene  and  Alvord, 
Governors'  Letter-Books,  1818-1834,  p.  51. 


THE   NEW   STATE   GOVERNMENT        39 

were  altered  rapidly  by  the  various  general  assemblies.  The 
successive  laws  provided  for  the  division  of  the  counties  into 
election  districts  with  judges  chosen  by  the  county  commis- 
sioners' court.  In  1819  and  1823,  provision  was  made  for  vote 
by  ballot,  in  1821  and  1829,  by  viva  voce.  All  the  acts  after 
1823  allowed  the  voter  to  cast  his  vote  at  any  polling  place  in 
the  district  in  which  an  office  for  which  he  had  the  franchise 
was  to  be  filled. 

The  question  between  viva  voce  and  ballot  voting  gave  rise 
to  some  interesting  political  discussion.  In  1819  there  seemed 
to  be  a  tendency  to  defend  viva  voce  voting  as  a  necessary 
complement  to  the  hustings,  where  the  candidate  appeared,  to 
be  interrogated  or  pledged  by  the  voter  if  he  wished.  Vote  by 
ballot,  on  the  other  hand,  was  held  to  imply  some  form  of 
previous  nomination;  and  a  nomination  by  clique  or  meeting 
enabled  a  man  to  stand  aloof  and  unpledged  and  be  elected  by 
his  friends.8  Whatever  force  this  theory  may  have  possessed 
disappeared  with  the  multiplication  of  polling  places.  One 
has  more  sympathy  with  the  attacks  made  in  1821  on  viva  voce 
voting  as  a  relic  of  British  tyranny  which  admitted  of  overawing 
voters.  The  general  assembly  was  attacked  for  ordaining 
viva  voce  vote  in  popular  elections  and  for  conducting  its  own 
by  ballot;  and  as  a  result  of  this  criticism  the  assembly  in  1829 
provided  by  law  that  its  own  elections  should  be  viva  voce.9 

At  first  the  quinquennial  state  census  was  apparently  designed 
as  an  aid  to  apportionment.  The  laws  of  1819  prescribed  only 
returns  of  heads  of  families,  free  white  males  of  twenty-one 
years,  other  free  whites,  free  people  of  color  and  slaves.  The 
laws  of  1829,  however,  contained  additional  provisions  for 
returning  the  number  of  persons  of  both  sexes  and  colors  in 
ten-year  age  periods,  the  number  of  males  eighteen  to  forty-five 
subject  to  militia  duty,  and  the  number  of  factories,  machines, 
distilleries,  etc. 

In  the  legislation  of  Illinois  during  the  period  of  its  first 

8 Illinois  Intelligencer,  March  17,  June  9,  1819. 

8  Ibid.,  January  16,  July  31,  1821;  Senate  Journal,  1821,  i  session,  68. 


40  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

constitution  the  militia  occupies  a  much  more  prominent  place 
than  a  legislature  of  this  day  would  assign  it.  Indications  are 
not  wanting  that  its  importance  was  much  less  than  the  bulk 
of  legislation  would  imply.  The  constitution  defined  the  militia 
as  all  free  white  males  from  eighteen  to  forty-five  except  those 
exempted;  it  provided  for  the  exemption  of  conscientious  ob- 
jectors, it  prescribed  the  election  of  company  and  regimental 
officers  by  the  whole  of  their  respective  commands,  and  election 
of  general  officers  by  the  officers  of  the  commands  in  question. 
The  legislature  provided  for  conscientious  objectors  by  allow- 
ing them  to  obtain  release  from  drill,  not  from  active  service, 
by  payments  for  flags  and  martial  musical  instruments  or  for 
the  poor  of  the  county,  or  by  additional  road  service. 

The  militia  was  organized  on  a  territorial  basis ;  its  unit  was 
the  company  whose  captain  was  to  enroll  in  a  specific  district  all 
those  liable  for  duty;  the  regiment  represented  a  county,  and 
the  brigades  and  divisions,  groups  of  counties.  The  men  were 
brought  together  in  company,  battalion,  or  regiment  for  drill 
several  days  in  each  year.  The  officers  formed  regimental 
courts-martial  which  assessed  petty  fines  for  nonattendance  at 
musters  or  for  improper  equipment.10 

In  spite  of  elaborate  militia  statutes,  notices  in  newspapers 
of  militia  elections,  and  even  store  advertisements  of  martial 
trappings,  one  doubts  if  the  militia  service  was  a  very  important 
one  in  men's  minds,  or  even  if  the  musters  gained  in  the  social 
life  of  communities  such  a  place  as  that  held  by  the  circuit  court 
days.  Coles  in  reporting  to  the  war  department  in  1826  ex- 
pressed the  belief  that  a  volunteer  corps  would  be  far  more 
valuable.  He  thought  that  the  musters  were  productive  of 
little  military  knowledge  and  that  their  effect  on  society  was  bad. 
He  believed  one  muster  a  year  for  companies  and  regiments 
would  be  enough,  though  he  thought  the  officers  would  need 
additional  training  in  "the  duties  of  the  field  and  camp." 
"  The  Militia,"  he  said,  "  as  now  organized  is  a  mere  school  of 

10 Laws  of  1819,  p.  13-14,  270-296;  Laws  of  1821,  p.  13,  106-112;  Laws 
of  1823,  p.  40;  Laws  of  1827,  p.  296;  Laws  of  1829,  p.  107-108. 


THE   NEW   STATE   GOVERNMENT        41 

titles  where  honors  are  conferred  more  from  a  momentary 
impulse  of  personal  kindness  than  from  a  sense  of  the  qualifi- 
cations of  the  individuals."11  This  criticism  was  amply  justified 
in  the  course  of  time,  for  when  in  1861  the  call  came  for  six 
regiments  of  militia,  there  were  "  no  available,  efficient,  armed 
and  organized  militia  companies  in  the  State,  and  it  is  doubted 
whether  there  were  thirty  companies  with  any  regular  organ- 
ization."12 

The  problem  of  transportation  in  pioneer  Illinois  was  a  most 
important  one.  By  general  acts,  by  special  licenses  to  individuals 
and  corporations,  by  state  aid,  successive  legislatures  labored  at 
the  problem,  and  none  too  successfully.  The  general  acts  left 
the  handling  of  this  problem  in  its  primary  sense  of  good  local 
roads  under  the  charge  of  the  county  commissioners'  courts. 
In  local  districts  in  their  counties  these  courts  were  required 
annually  to  appoint  supervisors  of  highways  who  were  empow- 
ered to  call  on  the  people  of  their  districts  for  specific  amounts 
of  labor  or  for  money  commutation  in  lieu  of  them  which  might 
be  expended  for  hiring  extra  labor  and  teams  and  buying 
scrapers  or  materials.  These  acts  generally  laid  the  burden  of 
labor  on  the  highways  on  all  males  of  from  eighteen  to  fifty 
years,  but  the  act  of  1825  allowed  in  addition  a  levy  of  one-half 
per  cent  on  all  taxable  property  to  be  collected  in  labor  or 
money.  The  provision  was  repealed  in  1827.  In  this  provi- 
sion lay  a  direct  issue  as  to  whether  good  roads  were  to  be  con- 
sidered so  universal  a  benefit  that  the  poll  tax  principle  was 
properly  applicable,  or  whether  the  benefit  to  property  was 
sufficiently  great  to  warrant  its  taxation.  The  debate  assumed 
a  class  character;  and  while  in  Illinois  legislation  the  poll  tax 
principle  prevailed,  it  may  be  questioned  if  it  was  a  triumph  of 
justice.13 

In  dealing  with  tne  problem  of  long  distance  transportation 
the  legislature  was  inclined  to  rely  on  private  enterprise.  In 

11  Greene  and  Alvord,  Governors'  Letter-Books,  1818-1834,  p.  no. 

12  Reports  General  Assembly,  1863,  1:467. 

13  Laws  of  1825,  p.  130,  135;  Laws  of  1827,  p.  340,  346;  Ediuardsville  Spec- 
tator, May  9,  1820,  January  15,  1826. 


42  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

1819  it  allowed  county  commissioners'  courts  to  authorize  the 
establishment  of  ferries  and  to  fix  rates  for  fares,  which  rates 
the  owners  apparently  sometimes  tried  to  alter  at  pleasure.  It 
further  authorized  by  similar  means  the  construction  of  toll 
bridges  and  turnpikes.  In  addition  the  legislature  was  free 
with  special  acts  allowing  individuals  to  erect  toll  bridges  or 
build  turnpike  roads,  sometimes  with  a  provision  allowing 
county  purchase  after  a  term  of  years.  Sometimes  a  lottery  was 
authorized  for  some  such  purpose  as  improving  the  Grand 
Rapids  of  the  Wabash  or  draining  the  American  Bottom.  In 
1825  the  county  commissioners  of  Sangamon  county  were 
allowed  to  receive  subscriptions  and  to  levy  a  tax  for  the  im- 
provement of  the  Sangamon  river. 

Sometimes  the  state  legislature  made  grants  in  aid.  Thus 
in  1823  it  provided  for  the  laying  out  of  a  series  of  roads  radi- 
ating from  Vandalia  and  appropriated  $8,000  to  build  them  in 
Fayette  county.  Frequently  it  passed  acts  appointing  com- 
missioners to  lay  out  specified  roads.  "Vast  sums  from  the 
public  Treasury,"  protested  the  council  of  revision  in  1827, 
"have  been  thrown  away  on  commissioners  to  view  and  mark 
out  roads,  which  have  never  been  and  never  will  be  opened."  14 

In  1827  and  1829  the  legislature  set  about  appropriating  the 
proceeds  from  the  sale  of  the  surplus  saline  land  which  had 
been  authorized  by  congress.  The  act  of  1827  provided  for  its 
use  in  improving  Saline  creek,  for  a  local  road,  and  for  a  canal 
on  the  Little  Wabash,  allotting  the  proceeds  from  the  Vermilion 
saline  to  the  improvement  of  the  Great  Wabash.  In  1829  it 
distributed  all  the  proceeds  above  $10,000  to  various  counties 
for  miscellaneous  public  works.  This  was  apparently  the 
triumph  of  a  scheme  of  legislative  logrolling  in  which  amend- 
ments and  additions  without  number  were  proposed  for  the 
benefit  of  various  localities  and  vain  appeals  made  for  economy 
or  for  reimbursing  the  school  fund  instead.  Two  broad  pro- 
jects of  internal  improvement  by  federal  activity  or  federal 
aid  —  the  Cumberland  road  and  the  Illinois  and  Michigan 

14  Senate  Journal,  1826-1827,  i  session,  126. 


THE   NEW   STATE   GOVERNMENT        43 

canal  —  though  projected  in  this  period,  were  not  undertaken 
till  later  and  may  most  appropriately  be  considered  elsewhere. 

From  the  first  session  of  the  general  assembly  the  question 
of  the  establishment  of  an  adequate  code  of  statute  law  came 
up  repeatedly.  The  first  legislature  was  criticized  sharply 
for  repealing  the  territorial  code  and  for  the  alleged  discrep- 
ancies and  omissions  in  the  laws  with  which  they  sought  to 
replace  it.  In  the  session  of  1823  a  joint  committee  of  the 
general  assembly  decided  against  revision  of  the  laws  until  a 
permanent  judiciary  could  be  established,  possibly  intending 
to  postpone  consideration  till  the  question  of  a  revised  consti- 
tution was  settled  also.  That  question  settled,  the  legislature 
of  1825  required  the  justices  of  the  supreme  court  to  digest  the 
statutes  and  report  discrepancies  to  the  general  assembly  for 
adjustment.  They  were  also  directed  to  consider  the  expedi- 
ency of  printing  with  the  statutes  the  English  statutes  in  force 
in  the  state,  a  reminiscence  of  the  act  of  the  first  general  assem- 
bly which  had  made  the  rule  of  decision,  subject  to  legislative 
alteration,  the  common  law  of  England  and  all  statutes  with 
certain  exceptions  made  in  aid  of  it  before  i6o6.15 

In  reporting  to  the  general  assembly  of  1827  the  justices 
excused  themselves  for  not  undertaking  the  prescribed  research 
in  early  English  laws  on  the  plea  that  many  of  the  statutes  were 
barbarous,  long  since  obsolete  and  at  variance  with  free  insti- 
tutions, as  well  as  by  the  fact  that  there  was  no  set  of  the  Acts 
of  Parliament  in  the  state.  They  had  further  decided  it  would 
be  inexpedient  to  prepare  a  digest  since  a  permanent  statutory 
code  was  designed.  Meanwhile  they  wished  to  examine  the 
new  Louisiana  code  and,  if  they  might  take  the  time  necessary, 
the  new  New  York  code.  Their  uncertainty  as  to  the  sense  of 
the  legislature  on  the  revenue  and  execution  laws,  they  con- 
cluded, prevented  them  from  having  the  work  completed.  The 
legislature  appointed  a  joint  committee  of  fourteen  which  set 
to  work  on  the  judges'  recommendation.  Their  work,  though 

18  Illinois  Intelligencer,  May  25,  1819;  Edwardsville  Spectator,  December 
27,  1819;  Senate  Journal,  1822-1823,  i  session,  77;  Laivs  of  tStQ,  p.  3. 


44  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

partly  enacted  into  law  in  the  form  of  statutes,  was  not  finished 
until  the  session  of  1829. 

The  early  criminal  codes  of  Illinois  were  influenced  in  their 
tenor  by  the  impossibility  of  providing  for  punishment  by  im- 
prisonment. In  spite  of  repeated  statutes  requiring  county 
commissioners  to  provide  strong  jails,  there  were  probably  even 
as  late  as  1829  many  counties  without  them.  A  state  peniten- 
tiary did  not  exist,  and  the  expense  of  keeping  malefactors  to 
serve  out  prison  terms  was  a  burden  which  counties  were  unwill- 
ing to  assume.  Accordingly,  when  fines  could  not  be  collected, 
the  most  feasible  method  of  punishment  for  the  more  serious 
offenses  appeared  to  be  whipping.  In  spite  of  such  traces  of 
savagery  as  the  fact  that  an  act  providing  for  punishment  by 
extreme  mutilation  was  lost  in  the  Illinois  house  in  1823  by  a 
vote  of  but  fourteen  to  eighteen,  it  is  probable  that  tender- 
hearted juries  often  neglected  to  apply  the  punishment  of  whip- 
ping. None  the  less,  the  early  codes  have  on  their  face  savage 
penalties  in  which  the  whipping  post  and  even  the  brand  play  a 
part.16 

By  the  criminal  act  of  1819  only  four  offenses  were  pun- 
ishable by  death.  From  this  list  the  code  of  1827  subtracted 
assault  and  arson,  unless  a  life  were  lost  in  the  fire,  while  adding 
two  corollary  offenses.  As  to  punishments  by  whipping,  the 
code  of  1827,  while  applying  it  to  nine  offenses  including  crimes 
of  violence,  forgery,  counterfeiting,  and  altering  marks  and 
brands,  cut  down  the  number  of  lashes;  in  certain  cases  the 
code  of  1819  prescribed  five  hundred  lashes,  but  the  later  code 
in  no  case  exceeded  a  hundred.  The  large  number  of  addi- 
tional offenses  created  by  the  act  of  1827  were  punished  by  fine 
or  by  civil  disability. 

Some  of  the  offenses  specified  in  the  early  act  are  interesting 
commentaries  on  the  economic  conditions  of  the  day.  In  the 
act  of  1819  were  penalties  for  hog  stealing,  altering  marks  — 
punished  by  a  fine  of  fifty  to  one  hundred  dollars  and  from 
twenty-five  to  thirty-nine  lashes  —  and  for  defacing  brands  — 

19  House  Journal,  1826,  2  session,  58;  ibid.,  1828-1829,  i  session,  7. 


THE   NEW  STATE   GOVERNMENT        45 

punished  by  a  fine  of  five  dollars  plus  the  value  of  the  animal 
and  forty  lashes  if  a  first  offense  and  by  branding  for  a  second. 
Persons  killing  cattle  or  hogs  in  a  wood  were  required  to  show 
the  head,  ears,  and  hide  to  the  next  magistrate  under  penalty 
of  ten  dollars.  Every  person  owning  livestock  was  required 
to  record  his  brand  or  earmark  with  the  county  commissioners' 
clerk,  and  a  person  buying  neat  cattle  must  within  eight  months 
brand  them  with  his  own  brand  before  two  credible  witnesses. 
Any  man  bringing  earless  hogs  to  a  house  was  to  be  judged  a 
hog  stealer.  The  act  is  strangely  reminiscent  of  the  custom  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  frontier  a  thousand  years  earlier. 

Certain  interesting  aspects  of  social  life  are  touched  in  the 
various  Illinois  codes.  In  1819  and  1827  acts  were  passed 
against  dueling,  the  first  of  them  limiting  the  death  penalty  to 
the  principal,  and  the  second  making  any  participation  in  a 
fatal  duel  murder.  Both  acts  punished  anyone  concerned  in 
the  formalities  of  a  duel  with  civil  disability.  There  was 
repeated  legislation  from  1819  against  gambling.  In  1825  the 
purchase  or  importation  of  packs  of  cards  or  other  gambling 
devices  was  punished  by  a  fine.  In  1 827  a  curious  provision  was 
enacted  making  payments  of  gambling  debts  recoverable  at 
law  at  treble  value  by  the  loser  or,  if  he  did  not  act,  by  any 
other  person.  There  was  a  severe  penalty  prescribed  against 
tavern  keepers  who  tolerated  gambling  or  who  kept  open  on 
Sunday.  The  term  tavern  was  given  a  definition  by  an  act  of 
1823  which  had  forbidden  county  commissioners  to  grant 
"grocery"  licenses  unless  the  applicant  gave  security  to  pro- 
vide lodging  for  four  persons  besides  his  family.  The  code  of 
1827  continued  the  penalty  against  tavern  keepers  who  toler- 
ated gambling;  further  it  provided  a  fine  for  tavern  keepers 
who  sold  liquor  without  a  license  or  sold  it  to  a  slave  without 
his  master's  consent.  There  was  a  general  penalty  for  keeping 
a  tippling  house  open  on  Sunday  or  for  keeping  a  gambling  or 
disorderly  house. 

Most  curious  of  all,  both  for  the  spirit  that  prompted  them 
and  for  the  spirit  which  they  were  intended  to  combat,  were 


46  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  Sunday  laws.  The  act  of  1819  assessed  a  fine  of  two  dol- 
lars on  persons  fighting,  working,  shooting,  or  hunting  on 
Sunday.  Further  it  assessed  swearing  of  oaths  at  from  fifty 
cents  to  two  dollars.  Persons  swearing  or  behaving  in  a  dis- 
orderly manner  before  a  court  or  a  congregation  were  fined 
from  three  to  fifty  dollars.  No  provisions  on  the  subject  appear 
in  the  code  of  1 827,  but  in  1 829  an  act  provided  that  any  person 
disturbing  Sunday  by  work  be  fined  not  to  exceed  five  dollars, 
and  anyone  disturbing  a  congregation  be  fined  not  to  exceed 
fifty  dollars. 

Acts  of  1819,  1825,  and  1827  provided  for  divorces  to  be 
granted  by  circuit  courts.  The  act  of  1825  allowed  divorce 
from  bed  and  board  for  cruelty  or  for  habitual  intoxication. 
Otherwise  only  impotence,  adultery,  and  the  existence  of  a 
previous  spouse  were  recognized  as  valid  reasons.  In  spite 
of  these  provisions,  the  legislature  was  repeatedly  appealed  to 
for  special  divorces  and  was  usually  in  the  throes  of  contest 
over  the  principle  of  granting  them.  A  limited  right  of  impris- 
onment for  debt  was  granted  by  the  act  of  1823,  but  it  applied 
only  in  case  of  an  affidavit  that  the  debtor  was  on  the  point  of 
absconding  and  lasted  only  till  security  was  given  or  an  oath  of 
insolvency  taken. 

It  is  comparatively  difficult  to  determine  the  character  and 
the  amount  of  crime  that  flourished  in  the  Illinois  of  the  first 
decade  of  statehood.  In  default  of  searching  court  records 
one  is  thrown  back  on  the  newspaper  accounts,  which  of  course 
are  far  from  complete  and  indeed  difficult  to  estimate.  Crimes 
of  violence  exclusive  of  those  resulting  from  mere  affrays  like 
that  one  at  Vandalia  when  James  Kelley,  cashier  of  the  state 
bank,  was  killed  in  the  act  of  cowhiding  his  assassin,  found 
their  most  fruitful  source  in  the  gangs  of  desperadoes,  half 
counterfeiters  and  horse  thieves,  half  robbers  and  murderers, 
such  as  the  one  which  infested  southeastern  Illinois  in  the  early 
years  of  statehood.  These  gangs,  having  their  rendezvous  at 
taverns  where  they  trapped  unwary  travelers  well  supplied  with 
money,  often  mustered  sufficient  strength  to  make  open  war 


THE   NEW   STATE   GOVERNMENT        47 

on  the  posses  sent  out  against  them.  Occasionally  the  inhabi- 
tants in  desperation  enforced  a  lynch  law  of  their  own,  as  for 
instance  when  in  Hamilton  county  in  1823  two  persons  were 
acquitted  of  the  death  of  a  bad  character  whose  house  they  had 
gone  to  search.17 

Among  lesser  crimes  counterfeiting  and  horse  stealing  throve 
exceedingly.  The  temptation  to  the  former  was  irresistible 
when  the  large  number  of  banks  of  issue  and  the  comparative 
ignorance  of  the  people  is  considered,  and  the  plates  once  made 
the  business  could  be  conducted  as  well  in  the  seclusion  of  the 
woods  as  in  cities.  Horse  stealing  was  so  prevalent  in  Madison 
county  in  the  first  years  of  statehood  that  Mrs.  Ninian  Edwards 
was  compelled  to  lead  the  family  horses  through  the  house  into 
the  yard  every  night. 

From  the  beginning.  Illinois  had  a  savage  black  code.  By 
jact  of  {he  firsf  legislature  all  Efagipoes  and  mulattoes  settling  in 
the  state  must  produce  a  certificate  of  freedom  to  be  recorded 
by  the  clerk  of  the  circuit  court.  Any  person  bringing  in  Negroes 
to  be  emancipated  must  give  bond  of  one  thousand  dollars  for 
each.  All  resident  blacks  must  enter  their  names  and  evidence 
of  their"lfre"edbm  with  the  circuit  clerk,  and  no  one  was  to  hire 
them  unless  they  produced  the  clerk's  certificate  to  their  free- 
dom. Harboring  runaway  slaves,  like  receiving  stolen  goods, 
was  felony.  Blacks  without  certificates  were  to  be  advertised 
in  the  papers  and  hired  out  for  a  year.  If  no  owner  appeared 
within  that  time  the  black  was  given  a  certificate  of  freedom. 
No  Negro  might  be  a  witness,  except  against  a  Negro,  a  mulatto, 
or  an  Indian.  The  code  of  1827  stated  that  justices  of  the 
peace  had  jurisdiction  over  free  Negroes,  indentured  servants, 
or  slaves  in  cases  of  larceny  and  with  the  verdict  of  a  jury  might 
condemn  them  to  stripes.  The  act  of  1819  had  also  left  to 
justices  power  of  inflicting  similar  punishment  on  insubordinate 
servants.  The  law  of  1829  provided  that  no  black  or  mulatto, 
not  a  citizen  of  one  of  the  United  States,  was  to  enter  the  state 
unless  he  gave  bond  of  a  thousand  dollars  and  exhibited  a  cer- 

17  Illinois  Gazette,  July  19,  1823. 


48  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

tificate  of  freedom.  This  law  was  ushered  in  by  a  report  by 
Joseph  Kitchell  which  pronounced  the  presence  of  negroes 
with  masters  a  moral  and  political  evil  and  their  presence  with- 
out them  a  greater  one,  especially  as  they  could  never  be  citi- 
zens. This  measure  passed  the  house  by  a  vote  of  twenty-five 
to  eleven  and  probably  represents  the  sentiment  of  the  day. 

The  clause  of  the  act  of  1819  which  penalized  the  bringing 
in  of  servants  without  giving  bond  caught  at  least  one  illus- 
trious victim  in  Edward  Coles,  who  had  brought  in  his  slaves 
a  month  after  the  passage  of  the  act  but  five  months  before  it 
was  published  and  had,  through  ignorance,  neglected  to  comply 
with  its  provisions.  He  was  sued  on  behalf  of  Madison  county 
late  in  1823  or  early  in  1824,  and  a  verdict  for  $2,000  was 
given  against  him.  The  next  legislature  passed  an  act  releasing 
all  penalties,  judgments,  or  verdicts  under  the  provision  of  the 
law  of  1819,  as  Coles'  enemies  alleged  at  his  special  instance. 
Samuel  McRoberts,  however,  who  was  now  the  presiding  judge, 
overruled  a  plea  to  set  aside  the  judgment  and  verdict,  arguing 
that  the  legislature  could  not  legally  revoke  the  penalty.  His 
decision  was  reversed  by  the  supreme  court  in  1826.  Mean- 
while it  gave  rise  to  a  long  newspaper  controversy  between 
Coles  and  McRoberts.18 

With  the  presence  of  free  blacks  in  the  state  the  kidnapping 
of  them  into  slavery  in  the  south  was  all  too  common,  especially 
in  the  decades  1820-1840.  For  instance  in  1823  certain 
freedmen  from  Vincennes  were  kidnapped  and  carried  off 
through  Shawneetown  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  son  of  William 
Henry  Harrison  endeavored  to  raise  a  pursuit.19  There  were 
repeated  laws  on  kidnapping.  The  act  of  1819  penalized  it  by 
a  fine  of  one  thousand  dollars.  The  act  of  1825  made  it  a  fel- 
ony punishable  by  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  stripes,  by  two  to 
four  hours  in  the  pillory,  and  by  a  fine  of  one  thousand  dollars. 
It  was  much  more  closely  drawn  than  its  predecessor  and  in- 
cluded the  case  of  kidnapping  from  one  county  of  the  state  to 

18  Ed<wards<ville  Spectator,  April  12,  26,  1825. 

19  Illinois  Gazette,  August  2,  1823. 


THE   NEW   STATE   GOVERNMENT        49 

another  and  prohibited  the  selling  of  indentured  servants  out  of 
the  state.  The  code  of  1827  had  somewhat  similar  provisions. 
The  act  of  1829  prohibited  marriage  between  the  races  under 
penalty  of  stripes,  fine,  and  imprisonment.  Jacob  Ogle  in  1823 
was  not  permitted  by  the  legislature  to  introduce  a  petition 
from  persons  of  color  begging  for  the  suffrage.  When  Flower 
sent  some  freed  Negroes  from  Illinois  to  Haiti,  they  were 
stopped  in  Shawneetown  under  suspicion  of  being  fugitive 
slaves.  It  was  intimated  that  the  men  in  charge  of  them  might 
design  to  sell  them  at  New  Orleans.  The  prevailing  attitude] 
toward  the  Negro  or  his  friends  was  distinctly  one  of  distrust 
and  dislike.20 

There  were  Negroes  other  than  freedmen  in  Illinois  not 
only  the  slaves  of  the  old  French  inhabitants  supposedly  guar- 
anteed them  by  the  Virginia  act  of  cession  but  numerous  inden- 
tured servants  as  well,  held  on  long  terms  that  made  them 
slaves  in  all  but  name.  Exactly  what  the  economic  status  of 
these  indentured  servants  was  is  hard  to  say.  The  indenture 
records  kept  in  various  counties,  however,  afford  some  light  on 
the  problem.  Sometimes  a  cash  consideration  as  high  as  $500 
is  named,  but  probably  in  such  cases  the  sum  was  paid  to  the 
former  owner  of  the  slave  in  or  out  of  Illinois.  Oftener  the 
consideration  was  a  suit  of  clothes,  a  blanket,  or  something  of 
the  sort.  The  term  of  service  varied  widely,  but  the  normal 
period  usually  was  one  that  terminated  at  the  slave's  sixtieth 
year.  Sometimes  whole  families  down  to  the  babe  at  the  breast 
were  indentured,  but  more  frequently  the  indentures  represent 
the  acquisition  of  an  adult  slave.  Except  near  the  saline  at 
least  as  many  women  as  men  were  indentured.  Undoubtedly 
this  points  to  the  presence  of  southern  women  unable  to  handle 
alone  the  task  of  housewifery  or  to  procure  white  help.  The 
need  of  servants  in  his  own  home  doubtless  caused  many  a 
young  man,  who  was  making  his  way  to  prosperity  without 
being  able  to  give  his  wife  the  benefits  of  it,  to  favor  slavery. 

The  indenturing  of  new  servants  ceased  of  course  with 

20  House  Journal,  1822-1823,  i  session,  36;  Illinois  Gazette,  April  3,  1829. 


50  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  new  state  constitution.  A  rush  to  indenture  servants  is 
especially  noticeable  in  White  and  Gallatin  counties  at  the  time 
when  the  first  draft  of  the  new  constitution  would  have  reached 
them,  about  August  25,  1818.  After  the  admission  of  the 
state  there  was  open  trading  in  French  slaves  and  in  indentures 
with  varying  terms  to  run.  Slavery  was  not  to  be  pronounced 
legally  at  an  end  in  Illinois  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  thereafter. 
Upon  the  first  legislature  the  duty  of  providing  a  new  capi- 
tal had  been  laid,  not  by  popular  demand,  but  by  the  influence 
of  speculators  in  the  constitutional  convention.  Kaskaskia,  for 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  seat  of  empire  in  the  central  west, 
was  still  by  post  road,  by  water,  and  by  commercial  connection, 
the  most  important  city  of  the  state;  a  change  from  this  logical 
capital  was  premature  and  unnecessary.  But  in  a  day  when  the 
projection  of  a  new  town  was  the  favorite  get-rich-quick  scheme, 
speculators  were  not  likely  to  let  slip  so  fat  an  opportunity  as 
the  promotion  of  a  new  capital.  The  question  was  brought 
before  the  convention  by  the  introduction  of  three  written  pro- 
posals from  proprietors  of  sites  on  the  Kaskaskia  river  north 
of  the  government  surveys,  offering  to  donate  land  to  the  state 
for  a  capital  site.  At  once  the  convention  took  issue.  A  bitter 
wrangle  ensued  with  the  outcome  a  draw,  for  the  resolution 
finally  adopted,  though  it  made  a  change  necessary,  was  de- 
signed to  remove  the  transaction  from  the  field  of  private 
speculation.  As  incorporated  in  the  constitution,  it  provided 
that  the  first  legislature  should  petition  congress  for  four 
sections  of  land  for  a  capital  site  "  on  the  Kaskaskia  river,  and 
as  near  as  may  be,  east  of  the  third  principal  meridian;"  if 
the  petition  was  granted  commissioners  were  to  be  appointed 
to  select  and  lay  out  a  town  site  to  be  the  seat  of  government 
for  twenty  years.  In  case  the  petition  was  refused,  the  general 
assembly  was  to  fix  the  capital  where  it  thought  best.  By 
requiring  that  the  site  be  located  east  of  the  third  meridian 
where  no  individuals  had  land  claims,  it  was  thought  that  the 
state,  and  not  private  enterprise,  would  profit  from  the  sale 
of  lots.  The  gains  from  this  source  were  practically  the  only 


THE   NEW   STATE   GOVERNMENT        51 

advantage  reasonably  to  be  expected  from  the  change,  and  to 
many  minds  they  seemed  trifling  indeed  as  compared  to  the  sac- 
rifices entailed. 

In  spite  of  some  such  protests,  the  legislature,  when  it  con- 
vened, proceeded  as  directed  by  the  constitution.  Its  petition 
was  granted  by  congress  and  five  commissioners  selected  as  the 
new  site  for  the  capital  Reeve's  Bluff,  a  beautiful  spot  in  the 
midst  of  an  unsettled  wilderness  eighty  miles  to  the  northeast 
of  Kaskaskia. 

The  legislative  ruling  that  only  one  hundred  and  fifty  lots 
of  the  new  site  were  to  be  put  on  sale  caused  such  absurdly 
high  prices  to  be  bid  for  them  that  on  paper  the  state  realized 
over  $35,000.  Only  a  small  portion  of  this  sum  was  paid  in 
cash,  however,  and  it  became  impossible  to  exact  full  payment 
when  in  a  short  time  the  dream  of  a  swift-growing  city  was  seen 
to  be  chimerical.  This  uninhabited  spot  was  christened  Van- 
dalia  ;21  having  thus  been  chosen  as  the  repository  of  the  state 
archives,  these  were  bundled  into  a  small  wagon  and  carried 
through  the  forest  to  the  temporary  building  erected  for  them. 

21  The  name  was  probably  taken  from  the  name  of  the  proposed  colony  of 
Vandalia  that  was  an  issue  in  British  politics  and  later  American  during  the 
last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


III.     TEN  YEARS  OF  STATE  FINANCE 

THE  public  finance  of  early  Illinois  introduces  the  student 
to  a  strange  world,  in  which  currency  normally  circulates 
at  a  score  of  different  discounts  from  par,  in  which  banks  are 
organized  to  loan  money  on  the  state's  credit  to  hard-pressed 
citizens,  and  in  which  the  state  derives  but  a  small  portion  of 
its  little  revenue  from  the  taxation  of  its  own  citizens.  Illinois 
state  finances,  while  not  expressed  in  sufficiently  great  sums  to 
be  impressive,  are  sufficiently  bizarre  to  be  interesting. 

As  an  introduction  to  the  public  finance  of  the  state  it  will 
be  necessary  first  to  consider  the  currency  and  private  finance. 
The  currency  in  circulation  in  Illinois  for  the  first  years  of  ks 
majority  was  emphatically  of  an  opera  bouffe  character.  Not 
merely  did  the  notes  composing  it  pass  at  a  discount ;  they  passed 
at  forty  different  discounts,  varying  with  the  reputation,  of  the 
banks  from  which  they  issued  or  purported  to  issue.  Some  were 
issued  by  solvent  banks,  some  by  specie  paying  banks,  some  were 
issued  by  banks  that  had  failed,  some  were  counterfeit  notes 
of  existing  banks  and  others  of  purely  fictitious  ones.  Of  the 
notes  in  circulation,  a  few  were  issued  by  New  England  banks, 
a  few  came  from  western  New  York,  more  came  from  Pennsyl- 
vania and  the  District  of  Columbia,  still  more  from  thf  banks 
of  Ohio  and  of  the  south,  in  particular  Tennessee  and  Ken- 
tucky. Local  notes  composed  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  total, 
and  notes  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  were  very  rare. 

In  great  measure  the  uncertainty  of  the  note  issues  in  cir- 
culation was  due  to  the  course  of  western  trade.  Illinois  was 
poor ;  her  agricultural  products  were  her  main  source  of  wealth ; 
and  these,  poured  down  the  Mississippi  in  such  quantities  as 
to  glut  the  markets  of  New  Orleans,  afforded  meager  returns. 
Furthermore,  New  Orleans  was  not  able  to  act  as  the  source 

52 


TEN   YEARS   OF   STATE   FINANCE        53 

of  supply  for  the  needs  of  the  state;  and  the  manufactured  lux- 
uries and  necessaries  that  Illinois  drew  from  older  communities 
came  from  the  northeast,  notably  from  Philadelphia  and  Pitts- 
burg.  Means  of  making  payments  in  the  eastern  cities  were 
scanty  in  the  extreme.  The  good  eastern  money  brought  in  by 
immigrants  found  its  way  to  the  land  offices  and  from  them  it 
was  drawn  into  the  government  treasury  to  be  spent  in  the 
east.  The  west  was  accordingly  compelled  to  drain  out  the 
dregs  of  its  good  money  to  pay  its  eastern  debts.  The  one 
means  of  relief  would  have  been  a  commercial  or  exchange 
organization  capable  of  setting  off  credits  at  New  Orleans 
against  debits  in  the  east,  but  no  such  organization  existed. 
The  Bank  of  the  United  States  had  hoped  to  establish  a  uniform 
currency  by  making  notes  issued  at  one  branch  redeemable  at 
all  others;  but  the  western  branches  had  issued  such  floods  of 
notes  to  be  applied  in  local  improvements  or  land  speculation 
that  the  United  States  Bank  was  threatened  by  the  drain  of 
its  specie  in  the  east.  The  fact  that  it  was  compelled  to  receive 
for  the  government  the  notes  of  any  bank  at  all  prevented  it 
from  circulating  its  own  notes  locally  in  the  west  and  providing 
a  different  system  of  exchange;  and  it  refrained  for  some  years 
from  any  issue  of  notes  whatever  in  the  west. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  question,  whether  or  not  the 
government  land  offices  would  accept  the  uncertain  currency  of 
the  west  was  vital  to  the  people  of  the  state.  William  H.  Craw- 
ford, secretary  of  the  treasury,  undertook  the  task  of  devising 
a  means  whereby  the  government  might  accept  the  better  notes 
current  in  the  west  and  convert  them  into  eastern  funds.  The 
Bank  of  the  United  States  had  at  first  agreed  in  localities  where 
it  had  no  branches  to  designate  local  banks  to  receive  the 
public  money  from  land  offices.  It  soon  discovered  that  in 
spite  of  the  treasury  limitations  as  to  notes  which  were  land 
office  money,  it  was  becoming  responsible  for  vast  sums  of 
paper  it  could  not  convert  into  current  funds  without  delay  and 
loss  by  exchange.  In  June,  1818,  therefore,  it  announced  that 
it  would  henceforth  be  responsible  only  for  the  transmission 


'54  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

of  legal  currency  of  the  United  States  or  of  funds  convertible 
into  it.  Crawford  then  undertook  to  use  state  banks  in  the 
west  as  deposit  agencies,  requiring  them  to  transmit  the  gov- 
ernment funds  in  their  possession  by  degrees  to  the  United 
States  Bank;  and  in  1819  he  granted  them  fixed  government 
deposit  balances.  At  the  same  time  he  required  them  to  be 
responsible  for  the  transmission  without  depreciation  of  bank 
notes  deposited  by  land  offices,  but  allowed  them  to  discon- 
tinue receiving  notes  of  any  particular  bank  on  due  notice  to 
the  receiver  of  the  depositing  land  office.1  In  1820  he  entered 
into  arrangements  by  which  the  depository  banks  were  to  re- 
ceive and  remit  at  par  notes  of  certain  eastern  banks  and  of 
specie  paying  banks  in  their  own  community.  This  was  a 
distinctly  able  measure  toward  building  up  sound  local  cur- 
rencies. 

Undoubtedly  this  policy  saved  the  west  from  much  hard- 
ship. Had  it  not  been  entered  into,  the  government  could  have 
received  only  specie,  United  States  Bank  notes,  and  good  east- 
ern notes,  all  of  which  were  rare  in  the  west.  Undoubtedly  as 
Crawford's  enemy,  Ninian  Edwards,  later  charged  some  gov- 
ernment money  was  lost  in  transactions  with  fraudulently  con- 
ducted banks;  possibly  also  Crawford  used  the  measure  to 
favor  his  political  friends ;  but  when  all  has  been  said  the  policy 
was  essentially  statesmanlike  in  character  and  was  executed, 
if  one  can  judge  from  the  State  Papers,  with  much  skill. 

The  Bank  of  Missouri  served  the  longest  as  a  depository 
bank  for  Illinois.  Crawford  had  designated  it  first  as  the  de- 
pository for  the  Illinois  receivers.  In  1819  he  allowed  it  a 
fixed  government  deposit  of  $175,000.  At  one  time  it  held  as 
much  as  $600,000  of  government  funds  awaiting  transmission, 
much  of  it  in  such  notes  as  the  United  States  Bank  would  not 
accept,  and  much  of  it  of  uncertain  value  from  any  standpoint. 
Yet  only  $152,000  was  caught  in  the  bank  when  it  finally  sus- 
pended; and  part  of  that  may  have  been  in  uncurrent  notes 
received  before  the  bank  had  a  right  of  veto  on  the  paper  it 

1  American  State  Papers,  Finance,  3:725,  741,  747-750,  4:583,  587,  844,  853. 


TEN   YEARS   OF   STATE   FINANCE        55 

received.2  It  suffered  heavy  drains  of  specie  to  pay  accounts 
for  which  exchange  could  not  be  procured  —  $90,000  in  a  year; 
in  June,  1821,  it  appealed  to  Crawford  for  an  additional  de- 
posit of  $50,000  and  in  August  suspended.  It  had  loaned 
nearly  the  full  amount  of  its  paid-in  capital,  $210,000,  over 
half  the  sum  going  to  the  directors,  who  had  in  addition  bor- 
rowed $80,000  on  mortgage,  $60,000  on  personal  security,  and 
$37,000  as  indorsers.  The  reason  for  its  downfall  is  obvious, 
but  considering  conditions  in  the  west  it  had  served  with  fair 
efficiency  as  the  government's  fiscal  agent. 

Needless  to  say,  there  was  from  the  beginning  jealousy  in 
Illinois  at  the  preference  accorded  to  the  bank  across  the  river 
in  receiving  deposits  from  United  States  land  offices.  At  the 
time  of  admission  Illinois  had  two  banks  in  operation,  the 
Bank  of  Edwardsville  and  the  Bank  of  Illinois  at  Shawnee- 
town;  the  banks  of  Cairo  and  Kaskaskia,  though  chartered, 
were  not  in  operation.  The  Bank  of  Illinois  numbered  among 
its  officers  many  of  the  most  substantial  men  of  Shawnee- 
town  —  John  Marshall,  Leonard  White,  Samuel  and  John 
Caldwell,  John  McLean,  Michael  Jones.  Through  the  earlier 
part  of  its  career  it  was  distinctly  well  managed.  The  Bank 
of  Edwardsville,  though  displaying  on  its  list  of  sponsors  the 
great  name  of  Ninian  Edwards,  had  men  in  its  directorate 
whose  financial  stability  was  seriously  questioned.  The  bank 
was  backed  by  Richard  M.  and  James  Johnson  and  General 
Duval  Payne  of  Kentucky.  In  1819,  $214,250  of  its  stock 
was  held  in  Kentucky,  $18,000  in  St.  Louis,  and  $66,750  in 
Illinois.  Only  a  tenth  of  this  was  paid  in.  Both  the  Bank  of 
Illinois  and  the  Bank  of  Edwardsville  were  made  government 
depositories  late  in  i8i8.3 

The  career  of  the  Bank  of  Edwardsville  as  a  government 
agent  was  short  and  troublous.  Its  ownership  apparently 
involved  it  in  a  series  of  associations  with  several  other  banking 
enterprises  of  uncertain  character  and  in  resulting  rivalries 

2  American  State  Papers,  Finance,  3:753,  758. 

3  House  Journal,  1819,  2  session,  107;  American  State  Papers,  Finance,  3  :  741. 


56  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

with  other  banks.  It  was  connected  with  the  Bank  of  St.  Louis, 
a  rival  to  the  Bank  of  Missouri,  which  finally  failed.  Crawford 
was  continually  assailed  by  recriminations  from  the  two  rival 
banks,  the  Edwardsville  institution  accusing  the  Bank  of  Mis- 
souri of  robbing  it  of  specie  through  presenting  its  notes  re- 
ceived in  land  office  deposits.  The  Bank  of  Edwardsville  was 
never  allowed  to  decide  what  notes  it  should  accept.  It  was  in 
continual  difficulty  with  the  government  over  failures  to  make 
remittances,  for  which  it  excused  itself  by  the  plea  that  eastern 
funds  could  not  be  procured  in  the  state  and  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  ship  specie.  Benjamin  Stephenson,  the  president,  in 
his  capacity  as  receiver  of  the  land  office,  failed  to  make  deposits 
regularly.  Ninian  Edwards  cautiously  disclaimed  responsi- 
bility for  the  institution  in  1819,  and  in  1821  it  failed,  carrying 
a  heavy  government  deposit  with  it. 

The  Bank  of  Illinois  had  a  better  record  than  its  rival  in 
its  career  as  a  government  agent.  It  made  its  remittances 
with  comparative  regularity  and  in  good  funds.  Its  notes 
passed  at  par  in  Illinois  in  1822.  In  1824  it  declared  a  seven 
per  cent  dividend.  Its  sound  condition  undoubtedly  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  late  in  1819  it  voted  for  the  future  to  discount 
bills  of  lading  only;  thus  it  practically  confined  its  discount 
business  to  the  equivalent  of  good  commercial  paper,  repre- 
senting bona  fide  transactions.  Eventually  it  abandoned  busi- 
ness, only  to  resume  it  ten  years  later  at  the  time  of  the  internal 
improvement  excitement.4 

The  first  general  assembly  under  the  provision  of  the  state 
constitution  attempted  to  contribute  to  the  financial  world  of 
Illinois  a  state  bank  with  a  capital  of  $4,000,000  half  sub- 
scribed by  the  state  and  half  by  private  persons.  Of  the 
capital  only  one-fifth  was  to  be  paid  in  during  the  first  six  months. 
The  bank's  notes  were  to  be  receivable  for  state  dues  at  par  so 
long  as  they  were  payable  on  demand  and  were  to  draw  twelve 
per  cent  interest  a  year  when  they  were  not  so  payable.  The 

*  American  State  Papers,  Finance,  4:956;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  June  15, 
1822,  July  17,  1824;  Illinois  Gazette,  December  n,  1819. 


TEN   YEARS   OF   STATE   FINANCE        57 

enterprise  from  the  first  encountered  the  bitter  hostility  of  the 
Illinois  Emigrant  which  claimed  that  it  was  the  work  of  a 
Kaskaskia  clique.  The  Intelligencer  retorted  that  the  Emi- 
grants hostility  was  due  to  the  solicitude  of  the  Shawneetown 
newspaper  for  the  welfare  of  the  Bank  of  Illinois.  The  debate, 
however,  was  futile  as  the  bank  never  went  into  operation.5 

Undeterred  by  the  fiasco  the  second  general  assembly  of 
1 8  20— 1 821  proceeded  with  a  scheme  for  another  bank.  It  was 
to  be  administered  by  a  head  office  and  four  branches,  each  with 
a  local  directorate.  Its  capital  was  to  be  $500,000,  and  it 
might  issue  $300,000  in  notes  bearing  two  per  cent  interest 
which  were  to  be  loaned  among  the  counties,  each  citizen  being 
entitled  to  a  total  discount  not  in  excess  of  $1,000.  Loans 
in  excess  of  $100  were  to  be  secured  on  real  estate.  The  faith 
of  the  general  assembly  was  pledged  to  the  redemption  of  these 
precious  notes  in  ten  years,  one-tenth  of  them  each  year. 
Against  money  received  from  the  United  States  government 
by  the  state  treasurer  which  was  to  be  deposited  in  the  bank, 
demand  notes  to  the  amount  of  twice  the  sums  deposited  were 
to  be  issued  and  loaned  in  sums  not  exceeding  $300  at  six  per 
cent.  A  replevin  law,  applicable  for  three  years  to  all  execu- 
tions in  satisfaction  of  which  state  notes  were  not  accepted, 
indicates  the  purpose  of  the  whole  act.  Times  were  hard  and 
money  scarce,  and  a  benevolent  state  accordingly  issued  money 
in  plenty  to  loan  its  citizens  and  protected  their  debts  in  case 
these  could  not  be  satisfied  in  it. 

Men  were  not  wanting  in  the  legislature  to  point  out  the 
obvious  arguments  against  the  plan.  Wickliffe  Kitchell  and 
three  others  protested  in  the  house,  holding  that  the  operations 
of  the  bank  would  be  a  palpable  evasion  of  the  constitutional 
provision  against  state  emissions  of  bills  of  credit.  Further 
they  held  that  the  bank  would  encourage  speculators  and  make 
bankruptcy  easy.  Joseph  Kitchell  in  the  senate  had  previously 
offered  a  resolution  denouncing  the  establishment  of  a  bank 

5  Illinois  Intelligencer,  March  17,  April  21,  May  19,  1819;  Illinois  Emigrant, 
April  17,  June  5,  12,  1819. 


58  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

without  specie  capital  with  which  to  redeem  its  paper  on  de- 
mand. The  council  of  revision  objected  to  the  bill  on  the 
"bills  of  credit"  ground  and  provoked  only  an  overruling 
which  was  preceded  by  a  peevish  report  adducing  among  other 
arguments  for  the  bill  that  as  the  notes  would  not  be  accepted 
outside  the  state  they  would  remain  at  home  for  the  use  of 
the  citizens  of  Illinois !  In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  McLean, 
the  speaker  of  the  house,  the  bill  became  a  law.6 

The  measure  once  passed,  the  Illinois  Gazette,  while  de- 
ploring it,  was  inclined  to  make  the  best  of  it  and  even  attacked 
the  Shawneetown  merchants  for  receiving  state  bank  paper 
only  at  a  fifty  per  cent  discount.  The  Edwardsville  Spectator 
approved  the  measure  from  the  first.  Some  of  the  bank's 
opponents,  such  as  Joseph  Kitchell,  were  apparently  conciliated 
by  offices  in  the  bank.  The  notes  were  speedily  disposed  of  at 
a  fifty  per  cent  discount.  A  further  issue  of  notes  proposed 
in  January  of  1823  was  fortunately  voted  down.7 

The  state  bank  indeed  is  not  to  be  judged  and  condemned 
by  the  ordinary  principles  of  banking,  for  this  most  extraordi- 
nary bank  was,  if  its  officials  may  be  believed,  almost  philan- 
thropic in  purpose.  "  When  it  is  recollected,"  said  a  document 
of  1827,  "that  the  establishment  of  the  State  Bank  was  a 
MEASURE  of  RELIEF  —  that  its  object  was  not  to  loan  money 
on  usury  to  the  wealthy,  for  the  purpose  of  gain,  but  to  lighten 
the  burthens  of  our  indigent  and  embarrassed  citizens  —  and 
that,  therefore,  if  any  preference  was  to  be  shewn  among  appli- 
cants for  loans,  it  was  to  be  exercised  in  favor  of  those  who 
were  encumbered  by  debt — the  only  real  matter  of  surprise 
is  that  loans  made  under  provisions  so  liberal,  would  have  been 
reduced  with  so  much  promptitude,  and  so  little  loss."  8  On 
reading  this  statement  the  professed  economist  will  cheerfully 
resign  the  subject,  although  colorably  pertaining  to  him,  to 
the  historian. 

6  House  Journal,  1820-1821,  i  session,  145-227. 

7  Illinois  Gazette,  July  8,  1821. 

8  Replication  of  William  Kinney,  Abraham  Prickctt,  and  Joseph  A.  Beaird 
to  Edwards'  charges,  Illinois  Intelligencer,  February  3,  1827. 


TEN   YEARS   OF   STATE   FINANCE         59 

The  capital  was  divided,  $83,516.86^  to  the  Edwards- 
ville  branch,  $48,834  to  Brownsville,  $84,685  to  Shawneetown, 
$47,265.02  to  Palmyra,  and  $35,699.11^  to  the  head  office 
at  Vandalia.  The  capital  of  the  Edwardsville  and  Shawnee- 
town branches  was  practically  loaned  out  a  few  months  after 
the  banks  went  into  operation.  The  Illinois  Gazette  sarcas- 
tically suggested  that  the  only  way  one  could  obtain  a  loan  from 
the  bank  was  by  being  indebted  to  a  director.  This  suggestion 
may  explain  the  attitude  of  a  storekeeper  like  William  Kinney 
connected  with  the  Edwardsville  branch  who  accepted  the  notes 
in  satisfaction  of  specie  claims  of  $20,000.  The  reader  may 
wonder  whether  the  claims  were  good  or  bad.  There  is  not 
very  much  doubt  that  the  Edwardsville  branch  loaned  some 
money  for  political  reasons,  some  for  the  establishment  of  a 
proslavery  press.  Loans  were  frequently  made  on  real  estate 
of  value  insufficient  to  cover  them.  To  add  to  the  opera  boufe 
character  of  the  situation  the  justices  of  the  supreme  court 
declared  that  in  their  opinion  the  act  establishing  the  bank  was 
unconstitutional  and  their  opinion  made  the  directors  chary 
of  legal  proceedings  to  enforce  collections  from  debtors.9 

The  situation  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  legislature 
in  1823  by  the  auditor,  who  in  his  report  pointed  out  that  the 
notes  were  circulating  at  fifty  per  cent  discount,  thereby  taxing 
unduly  state  officers  who  were  paid  in  them  at  par,  and  giving 
an  advantage  to  nonresidents  who  paid  their  taxes  at  par  in 
the  depreciated  paper.  He  offered  the  wise  suggestion  that 
while  the  measure  was  one  of  relief  and  had  been  salutary, 
the  time  had  now  come  to  press  the  liquidation  of  the  bank  as 
the  law  prescribed.  A  legislative  committee  suggested  a  repeal 
of  the  replevin  provision  in  the  law,  and  the  legislature  voted 
an  increase  of  fifty  per  cent  in  the  salaries  of  state  officers; 
but  the  main  difficulty  in  the  application  of  any  adequate  reform 
measure  was  found  to  be  the  lack  of  reports  from  which  the 
conditions  of  the  branches  could  be  learned.10 

9  Illinois  Intelligencer,  December  23,  1826,  February  3,  1827;  Ed<wardsville 
Spectator,  December  n,  1821;  Illinois  Gazette,  July  28,  1821. 

10  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  n,  1823;  Laics  of  1823,  p.  131,  181. 


60  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

The  legislature  of  1825,  after  an  investigation,  found  the 
condition  of  the  bank  hopeless.  Except  at  Edwardsville  and 
Palmyra  the  expenses  of  the  institution  had  exceeded  its  profits 
from  discounting.  The  books  of  the  Shawneetown  branch  were 
in  hopeless  disorder  and  those  at  Brownsville  little  better.  Leg- 
islation was  needed  to  force  the  Shawneetown  branch  to  turn 
over  to  the  head  office  the  funds  necessary  to  advance  the  work 
of  liquidation.  The  assembly  reenforced  the  legal  provision 
requiring  the  cashiers  to  retire  annually  ten  per  cent  of  the 
notes  and  provided  that  cancelled  notes  be  burned  or,  if  re- 
issued, be  stamped  so  as  not  to  draw  interest.  It  put  an  end 
to  the  business  of  the  branches  except  as  collecting  agencies. 
By  one  act,  however,  it  fatally  involved  the  state  finances  with 
those  of  the  bank  since  it  provided  that  auditor's  warrants  for 
appropriations  made  in  terms  of  "state  paper"  should  issue 
at  its  current  value  to  be  determined  by  state  officers ;  the  law 
recognized  the  current  value  as  thirty-three  and  one-third 
cents  on  the  dollar.  Probably  this  was  due  to  a  desire  to  issue 
in  auditor's  warrants  a  currency  in  which  debtors  could  pay 
their  debts;  but  the  effect  on  state  finances  was  disastrous.11 

The  auditor's  report  for  1826-1827  summarized  the  result 
of  this  policy.  The  value  of  state  paper  rose  to  seventy  cents 
on  the  dollar,  approximately  one-half  the  warrants  being  issued 
at  or  above  fifty.  About  one-third  of  the  state  paper  had  been 
retired  and  destroyed.  The  house  in  1825-1826  was  inclined 
to  oppose  further  relief  and  passed  a  measure  that  warrants 
be  issued  at  specie  value  and  be  payable  in  state  paper  at  fifty 
per  cent  discount;  but  the  friends  of  relief  were  strong  in  the 
senate  and  secured  the  retention  of  the  old  system.  Edwards 
in  his  campaign  for  the  governorship  in  that  year  criticized 
acutely  the  fatuous  policy  of  the  legislature.  He  pointed  out 
that  in  the  first  place  the  issue  of  auditor's  warrants  was  made 
necessary  by  the  fact  that  nonresidents  were  required  to  pay 
taxes  only  biennially.  The  debased  warrants  could  then  be 
used  by  nonresidents  to  pay  their  taxes  at  their  face  value  and 

11  Laws  of  1825,  p.  16,  82,  182;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  August  3,  1826. 


TEN  YEARS   OF  STATE   FINANCE        61 

must  themselves  ultimately  be  paid  at  par.  If  yearly  settle- 
ments of  taxes  were  required,  he  declared,  the  notes  would  rise 
in  value  because  of  the  need  of  a  medium  in  which  to  pay.12 

As  governor,  Edwards  hampered  himself  by  his  own  actions 
from  carrying  through  a  wiser  policy.  The  legislature  enacted 
a  law  for  a  gradual  scaling  up  of  the  rate  of  discount  at  which 
warrants  were  to  issue  which  would  carry  them  to  par  by 
November  29,  1830.  But  Edwards  frittered  away  his  influ- 
ence by  violent  attacks  on  his  political  enemies  which  brought 
him  no  advantage.  He  attacked  James  M.  Duncan,  cashier 
at  the  head  office  of  the  state  bank,  for  failures  in  duty  which 
certainly  did  not  amount  to  malfeasances  and  of  which  a  legis- 
lative committee  acquitted  him.  He  attacked  T.  W.  Smith, 
Kinney,  and  the  other  directors  and  cashiers  of  the  Edwards- 
ville  bank.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  they  were  guilty  at 
least  of  improper  conduct  but  the  legislature  in  Smith's  case 
took  refuge  behind  the  fact  that  his  charges  against  the  bank 
for  services  were  a  proper  matter  for  judicial  determination; 
and  the  men  accused  were  cleared.13 

The  intent  and  purpose  of  the  act  in  the  first  instance 
had  been  that  the  bank  should  by  gradually  retiring  its  notes 
automatically  liquidate  as  its  loans  were  paid.  A  series  of  acts 
reduced  the  organization  of  the  bank  to  a  collecting  agency. 
Thus  in  1829  the  position  of  cashier  of  the  head  office  was 
abolished,  the  auditor  and  treasurer  performing  his  duties. 
The  collections  came  slowly.  There  was  the  troublesome  ques- 
tion of  constitutionality  already  adverted  to;  and  further  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  directors  and  presidents  used  to  the 
fullest  extent  the  borrowing  privilege  which  the  original  law 
granted  them.  In  1827  a  statement  of  the  Brownsville  branch 
showed  that  William  M.  Alexander  had  borrowed  $1,900.83  ; 
Abner  Field,  $1,700;  William  McFatridge,  $750;  Joseph 
Duncan,  $2,000,  and  Edward  Cowles,  a  well-known  merchant 
of  Kaskaskia,  $1,750.  Of  these,  Cowles  had  paid  in  full, 

12  Illinois  Intelligencer,  August  3,  1826. 

13  Laws  of  1827,  p.  81;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  20,  February  3,  10, 
17,  1827. 


62  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Field  had  paid  $922,  and  Duncan  $275.  The  statement  speaks 
for  itself.  With  such  influential  debtors  the  cry  for  leniency 
in  dealing  with  bank  debtors  was  soon  raised.  In  his  farewell 
message  Governor  Coles  had  deprecated  the  extension  of 
inducements  to  debtors  to  pay  up.  Meanwhile  he  urged  as 
the  true  remedy  as  simple  an  administration  of  bank  affairs  as 
possible.  A  contrary  point  of  view  was  set  forth  in  a  house 
resolution  offered  by  John  Reynolds,  January  19,  which  urged 
that  inducements  to  secure  immediate  payments  would  save 
the  expense  of  administration.  An  act  was  passed  allowing 
debtors  on  paying  up  past  due  installments  to  renew  their  notes. 
Two  years  later  they  were  allowed  to  pay  up  in  three  annual 
installments  with  interest.  The  bank  lingered  as  a  problem 
after  the  passage  of  the  first  decade  of  state  history.14 

Some  of  the  complications  in  the  revenue  of  Illinois  intro- 
duced by  the  currency  and  the  banks  have  been  already  hinted 
at.  A  clearer  understanding  of  the  problem  may  be  obtained 
by  an  analysis  of  the  source  from  which  the  state's  revenue 
was  derived.  In  1821-1822  it  received  but  $7,121.09  from 
resident  taxpayers  and  $38,437.75  from  nonresidents  owning 
land  in  the  state ;  in  its  capacity  as  landed  proprietor  the  state 
received  $10,563.09  from  the  rental  of  the  salines  and  in  its 
capacity  of  land  speculator,  $5,659.86  from  the  sale  of  Van- 
dalia  lots. 

The  importance  in  the  state  finances  of  the  method  of  taxing 
nonresidents  is  self-evident.  The  enabling  act  had  prohibited 
the  state  from  taxing  nonresidents  at  a  higher  rate  than  resi- 
dents, from  taxing  land  within  five  years  from  the  time  of  pat- 
enting, or  taxing  the  bounty  lands  remaining  with  the  patentees 
for  three  years  after  the  date  of  the  patent.  The  state's 
dealings  with  nonresident  landholders  under  these  provisions 
are  interesting.  The  first  revenue  act  of  1819,  while  prescrib- 
ing a  triple  tax  on  landholders  who  did  not  schedule  their  lands 
and  bank  stock  before  a  certain  day,  left  nonresidents  too  short 
a  time  to  comply  and  caused  them  to  believe  the  state  was 

14  Greene  and  Alvord,  Governors'  Letter-Books,  1818-1834,  p.  132. 


TEN   YEARS   OF   STATE   FINANCE        63 

swindling  them  out  of  their  lands.  The  second  general  assem- 
bly allowed  those  subject  to  triple  tax  till  January  i,  1822,  to 
redeem  for  a  single  tax  plus  interest  and  provided  for  the  adver- 
tising in  the  eastern  cities  of  lands  on  which  taxes  were  unpaid. 
The  auditor  even  under  the  circumstances  thought  it  unwise 
actually  to  force  a  sale  and  contented  himself  with  an  advertise- 
ment as  a  threat  to  secure  payment  of  delinquent  taxes.  The 
act  of  1825  gave  nonresidents  till  January  i,  1826,  to  redeem 
for  a  single  tax  and  interest  all  lands  stricken  off  to  the  state 
under  the  act  of  1819  and  1823;  it  further  allowed  a  period 
of  two  years  in  the  future  during  which  land  could  be  redeemed 
for  one  hundred  per  cent  penalty.  The  legislature  of  1826  pro- 
vided that  sales  for  taxes  of  lands  owned  by  nonresidents 
thenceforth  be  held  once  a  year  instead  of  biennially.  A  further 
provision  designed  to  prevent  nonresidents  from  taking  advan- 
tage of  their  virtual  monopoly  of  state  paper  by  allowing  resi- 
dents only  to  pay  in  specie  and  at  the  prevailing  premium  was 
dropped  at  the  suggestion  of  the  council  of  revision.15 

The  nonresidents,  however,  were  not  without  their  revenge 
for  the  treatment  which  the  laws  clumsily  accorded  them.  Time 
and  again,  as  nearly  as  one  can  judge,  they  forced  the  state  to 
terms  by  refusing  to  pay  the  excessive  penalties  laid  for  failure 
to  pay  taxes.  It  was  believed  also  that  the  nonresident  tax- 
payers in  the  east  had  bought  up  the  notes  of  the  state  banks 
at  a  discount  to  use  them  at  par  in  paying  their  taxes.  Thus  they 
deprived  the  people  of  the  use  of  the  notes  as  a  medium  of 
exchange  and  taxed  them  the  amount  of  the  depreciation. 
Edwards  claimed  for  himself  at  least  part  of  the  credit  for  the 
attempt  to  obviate  this  situation  by  forcing  annual  sales  of 
nonresidents'  lands.16 

Administratively  the  state's  first  revenue  law  was  as  bad  as 
it  well  could  be  and  it  was  only  gradually  that  the  defects  in  it 
were  remedied.  It  was  questionable  if,  in  dividing  lands  into 
three  classes  and  setting  an  arbitrary  value  on  each,  the  law  of 

15  Laws  of  1825,  p.  106. 

16  About  6,000  tracts  were  sold  in  1827,  most  of  them  for  the  whole  tract. 
Few  were  stricken  off  to  the  state.    Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  27,  1827. 


64  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

1819  did  not  violate  the  constitutional  provision  that  all  prop- 
erty be  taxed  according  to  value.  Taxation  was  made  on  the 
basis  of  lists  turned  in  by  the  taxpayers,  resident  and  nonresi- 
dent. Furthermore,  while  the  auditor  was  authorized  to  obtain 
from  land  offices  abstracts  of  lands  entered,  it  must  have  been 
impossible  for  county  assessors  to  know  surely  whether  land 
was  listed  or  entered;  and  the  auditor  had  no  check  as  to  the 
amount  of  tax  he  was  entitled  to  receive  from  the  sheriff.  The 
auditor  gave  as  a  reason  for  not  selling  lands  for  taxes  in  1822 
that  the  validity  of  both  the  tax  law  and  the  law  allowing  state 
sales  for  nonpayment  of  taxes  was  seriously  questioned.  The 
auditor's  report  of  that  year  is  important  because  of  its  sugges- 
tion that  local  taxation  records  be  based  on  lists  sent  to  the 
counties  by  the  auditor  showing  lands  entered  in  the  county 
according  to  the  United  States  land  office  records.  A  further 
suggestion  that  the  auditor  be  allowed  to  fix  the  necessary  tax 
rate  was  premature. 

The  most  important  part  of  the  local  machinery  of  taxation 
perhaps  is  the  dividing  by  whatever  method  of  state  from  county 
revenues.  The  act  of  1819  retained  for  the  state  the  tax  on 
bank  stock,  on  nonresidents'  land,  and  two-thirds  the  tax  on 
residents'  land,  giving  the  county  the  tax  of  one-half  per  cent 
on  slaves  and  servants  and  permitting  it  to  levy  an  additional 
tax  of  one-half  per  cent  on  personal  property.  The  act  of  1821, 
when  the  state  revenue  seemed  likely  to  be  superabundant, 
assigned  the  county  two-thirds  of  the  residents'  land  tax.  In 
1827  in  answer  to  an  urgent  need  of  more  county  revenue  the 
county  was  allowed  all  the  land  tax  paid  by  its  residents.  The 
counties  in  the  Military  Tract  were  dealt  with  in  a  somewhat 
different  fashion.  A  subsidy  of  $750  was  granted  to  Pike 
county  in  1821.  In  1823  this  grant  was  continued  and  Fulton 
county  received  $450.  In  1827  this  was  altered  to  a  gift  of 
$275  to  each  Military  Tract  county,  in  return  for  which  the 
state  took  all  the  land  tax.17 

17  The  grand  jury  of  Madison  county  represented  the  county  revenue  as 
inadequate.  Ed<wardsville  Spectator,  September  27,  1823. 


TEN   YEARS   OF   STATE   FINANCE        65 

By  virtue  of  the  enabling  act  the  state  came  into  possession 
of  the  salines  including  the  reservations  made  to  supply  fire- 
wood for  salt  boiling.  The  state  thus  had  the  regulation  of  a 
large  landed  estate  that  normally  would  have  furnished  no 
inconsiderable  portion  of  the  revenue.  In  1823  Thomas 
Mather  estimated  the  income  from  the  saline  as  one-seventh 
of  the  state  revenue.  The  state,  however,  was  to  learn  by 
experience  the  difficulty  of  making  this  estate  productive.18 

The  difficulty  was  the  securing  of  punctual  payments  of  rent 
from  the  persons  to  whom  the  saline  was  leased.  At  the  state's 
admission  the  saline,  of  course,  was  in  the  hands  of  private 
lessees  holding  under  leases  from  the  United  States  govern- 
ment. They  asked  for  a  renewal  of  their  leases  and  offered 
$8,000  a  year  if  they  were  permitted  to  sell  salt  at  $1.25  a 
bushel  and  $10,000  if  they  could  sell  at  $1.50.  The  legislature 
at  its  first  session  rejected  both  propositions.  At  the  second 
session  the  legislature  leased  the  saline  to  the  former  lessees, 
probably  on  the  basis  of  salt  at  seventy-five  cents  a  bushel  and 
a  rent  payable  in  salt.  In  the  carrying  out  of  the  leases  there 
was  continual  difficulty.  The  lessees  refused  to  pay  over  to  the 
state  the  salt  due  on  the  unexpired  portion  of  the  1818  rent; 
and  by  March,  1820,  some  were  still  delinquent.19 

The  assembly  of  1821  created  the  office  of  superintendent 
of  the  saline  and  charged  it  with  the  duty  of  taking  possession 
of  establishments  which  had  forfeited  their  leases.  In  practice, 
however,  it  proved  difficult  to  make  the  agent  answerable  to  the 
auditor;  and  in  1823  the  assembly  had  to  pass  an  act  requiring 
reports  of  leases  not  yet  entered  to  the  auditor  and  accounts 
regularly  kept  with  him. 

As  a  matter  of  practice  the  state  found  it  impossible  to  col- 
lect from  the  lessees  of  the  saline  the  rents  which  they  had 
agreed  to  pay;  and  the  legislature  of  1823  began  the  practice 
of  condoning  the  nonpayment  of  them  by  releasing  the  securities 
of  one  of  the  lessees  from  liability  for  a  balance  of  $1,511.11 

18  House  Journal,  1822-1823,  i  session,  157. 

19  Greene  and  Alvord,    Governors'  Letter-Books,  1818-1834,  p.   16,   19,  23, 
26,  27. 


66  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

due  the  state.  In  great  measure  the  loss  was  probably  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  salt  spring  gave  too  weak  a  solution  to  furnish 
a  commercial  product  that  could  compete  in  price  with  Kanawha 
salt.  Much  of  the  legislation  of  relief  was  directed  to  the  pur- 
pose of  encouraging  the  lessees  to  search  for  springs  of  a 
greater  strength.  Thus  in  1823  it  offered  to  those  lessees  who 
had  paid  up  their  rent  an  extension  of  their  leases  for  ten  years 
in  case  they  found  salt  water  stronger  by  a  third  than  that  pre- 
viously used.  In  1825  certain  of  the  Shawneetown  lessees  were 
excused  from  paying  the  state  arrears  of  rent  in  case  they 
expended  them  in  searching  for  stronger  salt  water.  In  1822 
the  Illinois  Gazette  had  announced  that  the  discovery  of  a 
new  salt  spring  had  cut  the  price  of  salt  to  fifty  cents  a  bushel.20 
Governor  Coles,  who  during  his  term  had  taken  much  interest 
in  the  problem  of  the  saline  and  had  inquired  particularly  into 
the  practice  of  older  states  in  managing  theirs,  in  his  farewell 
message  advocated  that  a  tax  per  manufactured  bushel  be  sub- 
stituted for  the  fixed  rents,  which  indeed  had  been  calculated 
upon  the  basis  of  a  much  higher  price  for  salt  than  could  be 
obtained  in  the  face  of  the  competition  from  Kanawha  and 
imported  salt.  The  inferior  quality  of  the  salt  rendered  it  unfit 
for  salting  provisions  for  the  southern  market,  which  was  the 
most  important  commercial  use  for  it  The  legislature  in  1827 
passed  an  act  leasing  the  saline  until  1836  to  two  lessees  at  a 
price  proportioned  to  the  strength  of  the  water  they  should  find. 
The  surplus  land  attached  to  the  saline  and  to  the  Vermilion 
saline  was  sold  under  the  authority  of  successive  acts  of  the 
federal  government. 

The  state  of  Illinois  started  on  its  career  with  an  endowment 
for  schools  from  which  much  more  might  have  been  expected 
than  actually  was  obtained.  The  state  received  section  sixteen 
in  each  township  for  the  benefit  of  its  schools,  two  townships  of 
thirty-six  sections  each  for  a  seminary,  and  three  per  cent  on  net 
proceeds  from  the  sale  of  lands  in  the  state.  Of  this  amount 
one-sixth  was  for  a  college  or  university. 

20  Illinois  Gazette,  February  n,  1822. 


TEN   YEARS   OF   STATE   FINANCE        67 

Legislation  on  the  subject  of  the  school  land  was  at  first 
limited  to  a  provision  authorizing  local  renting  of  it  for  the 
benefit  of  schools  and  preventing  waste  on  it.21  The  school  act 
of  1825  was  more  general  in  scope  and  was  really  an  able 
attempt  to  establish  at  any  cost  a  good  system  of  primary 
education  at  public  expense.  The  act  made  provision  for  the 
creation  by  local  initiative  of  school  districts  containing  not  less 
than  fifteen  families  which  might  levy  taxes  on  themselves  for 
the  support  of  schools,  provided  they  did  not  exceed  one- 
half  per  cent  or  ten  dollars  a  person.  It  provided  also  in  the 
interest  of  the  district  schools  for  the  regulation  of  the  share  of 
school  land  pertaining  to  each  district  and  for  state  aid  to  the 
amount  of  the  state's  school  fund  and  of  a  fiftieth  of  its  revenue 
in  addition.  The  law,  which  was  defended  because  it  taxed 
rich  and  poor  alike  for  schools,  was  attacked  as  a  "  Yankee 
device  "  and  was  repealed  by  the  next  general  assembly,  which 
left  the  payment  of  the  tax  purely  optional  with  the  payer;  it 
retained,  however,  the  provision  for  the  apportionment  of  the 
section  sixteen  lands  among  the  school  districts  interested  in 
them.  In  1829  an  act,  passed  subject  to  the  assent  of  congress, 
allowed  the  sale  of  school  lands  at  a  minimum  of  a  dollar  and 
twenty-five  cents  an  acre  and  the  investment  of  the  proceeds 
in  mortgages.  The  same  legislature  passed  an  act  for  the  sale 
of  the  seminary  lands. 

Meanwhile  there  had  already  begun  the  process  by  which 
the  school  fund  of  the  state  arising  from  the  three  per  cent  of 
the  sales  of  public  lands  was  diverted  to  other  uses.  The  act 
of  1821  had  required  the  treasurer  to  pay  into  the  state  bank 
the  payments  made  by  the  federal  government  for  the  fund. 
These  payments  as  being  made  in  good  funds  were  made  the 
basis  for  the  issue  of  bank  notes  to  double  their  amount  payable 
on  demand  in  specie.  The  legislature  of  1825  in  spite  of  its 
excellent  school  law  was  guilty  of  directing  the  use  of  the  school 
fund  to  redeem  state  bank  notes,  auditor's  receipts  payable  in 
legal  United  States  currency  being  placed  in  the  fund.  In  1829 

21  Laics  of  iSiff,  p.  107,  260 ;  Laws  of  1821,  p.  60. 


68  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  fund  was  invaded  not  for  an  emergency  but  to  supply  the 
ordinary  expenses  of  the  government.  The  governor  was 
authorized  to  borrow  all  the  specie  in  it  and  in  the  seminary 
fund  at  six  per  cent  interest  and  to  use  it  in  paying  warrants 
drawn  at  their  specie  value.  The  fact  that  this  was  the  device 
used  to  get  the  state  warrants  back  on  a  specie  basis  cannot 
excuse  the  act. 

Considered  as  a  whole,  the  administration  of  the  state's 
finances  during  the  first  decade  of  statehood  cannot  be  com- 
mended. The  state  in  1 8 1 8  had  found  it  necessary  to  authorize 
a  loan  of  $25,000  to  pay  the  territorial  debt  and  to  meet  the 
expenses  of  the  first  year  of  statehood.  In  1820  Bond  had 
been  able  to  report  that  the  territorial  debt  had  been  extin- 
guished and  that  the  treasury  was  in  a  flourishing  condition.  In 
1823  the  auditor's  report  showed  receipts  of  $79,946.83 
against  warrants  of  $46,285.72  leaving  a  net  balance  of  about 
$33,661.11.  The  items  comprised  are  of  interest.  The  gen- 
eral assembly  cost  $14,966.18,  the  judiciary,  $7,932.33.  Sala- 
ries of  state  officials  amounted  to  $8,470.74  and  the  printing 
of  the  laws  and  journals  cost  $2,976.22.  The  device  intro- 
duced by  the  legislature  of  1825  of  issuing  warrants  at  three 
for  one  soon  changed  the  aspect  of  the  finances  of  the  state. 
The  auditor's  report  for  1826  showed  a  total  fund  of  $132,000 
to  meet  warrants  amounting  to  $154,000;  but  as  $29,000  of 
these  were  in  the  school  fund,  representing  sums  extracted  from 
it  for  state  expenses,  the  state  was  practically  solvent  It  had 
due  from  nonresidents  $26,000  in  taxes  and  from  the  saline 
lessees  $24,000,  which  on  account  of  the  exemption  from  rent 
of  the  lessees  in  return  for  boring  for  salt  water  could  not  be 
collected.22 

In  short,  the  history  of  the  first  ten  years  of  Illinois  finance, 
public  and  private,  is  the  story  of  the  struggle  of  men  with  con- 
ditions which  they  did  not  understand  and  which  they  had  not 
the  courage  to  meet,  even  according  to  the  intellectual  light  that 
they  possessed.  In  the  beginning  they  had  sought  to  establish 

22  Senate  Journal,  1818,  i  session,  7. 


TEN   YEARS   OF   STATE   FINANCE        69 

banks,  public  and  private,  in  order  to  remedy  by  abundant 
issues  of  notes  the  dearth  of  money  in  the  country  or  to  relieve 
the  financial  distress  of  hard-pressed  individuals.  In  the  case 
of  one  bank,  good  management  made  it  efficient  and  safe ;  in  the 
case  of  the  other  bad  management  led  to  complete  failure.  The 
state  bank,  begun  as  a  measure  of  relief,  threw  the  expense  of 
the  relief  that  it  afforded  to  individuals  upon  the  people  of  the 
state  at  large.  Because  the  legislatures  did  not  have  the  cour- 
age to  pay  for  liquidating  it,  they  diverted  to  this  end  the  trust 
fund  of  the  schools  and  borrowed  of  the  future  by  warrants 
issued  at  triple  the  value  of  the  service  for  which  they  paid.  In 
part  the  obliquity  exhibited  in  Illinois  finance  may  be  attributed 
to  the  fact  that  so  little  of  the  state's  revenue  was  actually 
drawn  from  its  citizens.  The  state  wisely  parted  with  its  poten- 
tial revenue  as  owner  of  the  saline  in  order  to  reduce  if  possible 
the  price  of  salt;  but  it  relied  for  years  on  possible  speculative 
returns  from  Vandalia  lots  and  developed  its  system  of  taxation 
with  an  eye  to  the  fact  that  much  of  it  was  paid  by  nonresidents. 
Among  the  evils  of  absentee  landlordism  in  Illinois  was  the  fact 
that  the  state  was  slow  to  attain  the  sense  of  sobriety  and 
responsibility  arising  in  a  state  of  things  in  which  the  voter 
realizes  that  his  demands  on  his  government  in  the  way  of 
service  must  be  reimbursed  by  him  in  his  capacity  of  taxpayer. 


IV.     THE  CONVENTION  STRUGGLE 

THE  union  into  which  Illinois  entered  on  the  third  of 
December,  1818,  was  a  union  already  at  the  verge  of 
sectional  strife  on  the  issue  of  slavery.  The  session  of  congress 
in  which  the  first  Illinois  representatives  took  their  seats  saw 
the  beginning  of  the  struggle  as  to  whether  Missouri  was  to  be 
slave  or  free;  and  the  last  aftermath  of  that  struggle  was  not 
gleaned  till  in  the  summer  of  1824  the  people  of  Illinois  finally 
registered  their  resolution  that  their  constitution  should  not  be 
altered  to  admit  slavery.  For  the  first  six  years  of  Illinois' 
[  existence  as  a  state,  the  question  of  slavery  hung  like  a  threaten- 
ing storm  over  her  politics. 

Distrust  of  the  effectiveness  of  the  more  or  less  ambiguous 
antislavery  clause  in  her  constitution  led  the  opponents  of 
slavery  in  congress  to  cloud  the  title  of  Illinois  to  statehood. 
John  McLean,  the  first  representative  from  Illinois,  appeared 
in  the  house  Tuesday,  November  19,  after  the  session  had 
begun.  The  house  decided,  however,  that  he  should  not  be 
admitted  till  it  was  satisfied  that  the  constitution  of  Illinois 
corresponded  to  the  enabling  act.  When  the  resolution  for  ad- 
mission came  up  for  third  reading  four  days  later,  opposition, 
hitherto  in  the  interest  of  orderly  procedure,  was  now  directed 
against  the  constitutional  provisions  allowing  indentured 
<  service  and  limited  slavery.  James  Tallmadge  of  New  York, 
;  later  famous  for  his  part  in  the  Missouri  struggle,  declared 
that  in  these  provisions  the  Illinois  constitution  contravened  the 
Ordinance  of  1787.  Richard  C.  Anderson  of  Kentucky  replied 
that  the  ordinance  was  not  a  compact  either  with  Virginia  or 
with  the  people  of  the  territory,  and  that  Virginia  by  her  deed 
of  cession  had  protected  the  right  of  the  French  inhabitants 
to  their  slaves.  William  Henry  Harrison  of  Ohio  defiantly 

70 


THE   CONVENTION   STRUGGLE  71 

assured  Tallmadge  that  the  people  of  Ohio  would  never  come 
to  congress  or  to  New  York  for  permission  in  case  they  desired 
to  repeal  their  constitutional  prohibition  of  slavery.  Finally, 
only  thirty-four  representatives  in  a  house  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty-one  followed  Tallmadge  in  voting  against  the  admission 
of  the  new  state ;  and  Illinois  took  its  place  in  the  union. 

The  validity  of  the  northwest  ordinance  again  came  into 
discussion  during  the  Missouri  debate  which  followed  hard  on 
that  over  the  admission  of  Illinois.  If  the  slavery  restriction 
in  that  ordinance  were  a  valid  limitation  on  the  states  that  had 
grown  up  under  it,  these  latter  could  hardly  be  considered  on 
an  equality  in  all  respects  with  the  older  states,  which  could 
lawfully  admit  or  exclude  slavery.  The  supporters  of  the 
slavery  restriction  pointed  to  the  ordinance  as  a  proof  that  the 
new  states  need  not  necessarily  be  on  a  complete  equality  with 
the  old;  the  supporters  of  the  Missouri  constitution  naturally 
argued  that  in  view  of  the  federal  constitution's  guarantee  of 
equality,  the  ordinance  could  not  prohibit  slavery  to  the  states 
that  had  been  under  it.  The  representatives  from  the  north- 
west, among  them  Daniel  Pope  Cook  of  Illinois  who  had  suc- 
ceeded McLean,  generally  maintained  the  validity  and  the 
sacredness  of  the  ordinance.  "This  ordinance,"  said  Benja- 
min Ruggles  of  Ohio,  "  has  been  to  the  people  of  the  North- 
western territory  a  rule  of  action  —  a  guide  to  direct  their 
course  — '  a  cloud  by  day,  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night.'  " l  On 
the  other  hand  representatives  from  the  south  argued  that  in 
spite  of  the  ordinance  the  people  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois 
might  alter  their  governments  as  they  saw  fit.  John  S.  Bar- 
bour  of  Virginia  was  inclined  to  argue  that  the  Virginia  cession 
required  that  the  new  states  must  be  as  sovereign  as  the  old. 
In  view  of  such  doctrine  the  slavery  leaders  in  Illinois  may 
well  have  wondered  if  the  decision  of  1818  need  be  regarded 
as  final. 

The  votes  of  the  Illinois  delegation  in  congress  were  not 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  16  congress,  i  session,  281;  see  also  ibid.,  15  congress, 
2  session,  1170  if.,  1411  ff. 


72  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

calculated  to  inspire  in  the  foes  of  slavery  a  conviction  that  the 
new  state  would  make  an  unflinching  resistance  to  the  intro- 

duction of  that  institution.     The  two  Illinois  senators.  Ninian 

—  -  ~~**         --- 

Edwards  and  Jesse  B.  Thomag,  consistently  supported  the 
~Cause  uf  Missuurir  Their  votes  in  no  instance  would  have 
altered  the  result;  but  McLean,  voting  in  the  house  on  one 
crucial  roll  call  with  the  majority  of  one,  may  possibly  have 
turned  the  tide.2  Daniel  Pe.-Cook^  .who 


in  the  session  of  1819-1820,  voted  against  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise; but  he  was  not  above  countenancing  the  use  of  the 
popularity  Edwards  had  gained  in  Missouri  to  endeavor  to 
secure  the  election  of  his  brother  John  Cook  as  senator  from 
that  state. 

It  was  on  the  Missouri  question,  however,  that  Cook  beat 
McLean  in  the  Illinois  congressional  election  of  1819. 
McLean  defended  his  vote  on  the  ground  that  the  attempted 
dictation  to  Missouri  of  an  antislavery  proviso  was  a  violation 
of  state  sovereignty.  He  attempted  to  evade  Cook's  assaults 
by  accusing  the  latter  of  being  really  proslavery  and  of  con- 
cealing his  belief  as  a  matter  of  policy.  Cook's  friends  insisted 
that  he  had  always  been  the  unflinching  foe  of  slavery.  They 
accused  McLean  of  having  made  in  the  former  canvass  anti- 
slavery  pledges  which  he  had  violated.  Worse  still  they  alleged 
he  was  the  tool  of  John  Scott,  the  Missouri  territorial  delegate; 
Missouri  when  admitted  a  slave  state  as  McLean  wished  would 
give  the  slave  states  control  of  the  senate.  "  McLean,"  said 
one  writer,  "will  vote  us  under  the  feet  of  slaves."3  Cook's 
supporters  in  their  publications  usually  assumed  that  the  people 
of  Illinois  were  generally  opposed  to  slavery  —  three-  fourths 
of  them  according  to  one  writer  —  and  that  her  representatives 
had  misrepresented  and  disgraced  her. 

The  congressional  election  of  1820  indicated  in  its  course 
the  possible  relation  between  the  triumph  of  slavery  in  Missouri 
and  its  adoption  in  Illinois.  Early  in  July  the  Edwardsville 

z  Annals  of  Congress,  15  congress,  2  session,  1273. 

3  Edivardsville  Spectator,  June  19,  1819;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  June  30, 
July  14,  1819. 


THE   CONVENTION   STRUGGLE          73 

Spectator,  edited  in  Edwards'  interest  by  Hooper  Warren,  1 
charged  Kane  who  was  Cook's  opponent  with  a  share  in  a 
deliberate  plot  to  amend  the  constitution  to  introduce  slavery. 
Kane  was  to  be  put  forward  for  congress  to  test  the  strength 
of  the  party;  control  of  the  Illinois  Gazette  and  of  the  Illinois 
Intelligencer  was  to  be  secured;  and  a  third  proslavery  press 
was  to  be  established  at  Edwardsville.  Cook's  friends  took  up 
the  cry,  recalling  that  in  the  midst  of  the  Missouri  debate 
Missouri  slaveholders  had  talked  of  setting  up  at  Edwardsville 
a  press  to  advocate  the  extension  of  slavery  in  Illinois  in  order 
to  keep  the  people  of  Illinois  busy  at  home.  Denials  appeared 
speedily  from  Kane  and  from  the  various  persons  accused  in  the 
plot.  Kane  insisted  that  Edwards  was  responsible  for  the  attack 
on  him  and  that  it  was  made  to  aid  Cook's  cause.  With  some 
pertinence  he  adverted  to  Edwards'  twenty-two  slaves  and  to 
the  fact  that  Edwards  had  voted  on  the  same  side  with  McLean, 
who  had  been  defeated  the  year  before.  Edwards  retorted 
with  a  denial.4  If  the  plot  actually  existed,  however,  the  defeat 
of  Kane  in  the  election  shortly  afterward  checked  it  for  the 
time  being. 

That  same  year  saw  an  open  proposal  for  amending  the 
constitution  to  admit  slavery,  which  emanated  from  a  new 
quarter  and  from  a  man  who  strangely  enough  has  frequently 
been  set  down  as  an  anti-convention  man,  Henry  Eddy.  In 
offering  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  legislature  in  1820,  he 
addressed  the  voters  of  Gallatin  county  as  follows:  "With 
regard  to  the  Saline,  then,  I  am  clear  for  extending  to  it,  for 
another  term  of  years,  the  privilege  which  it  now  enjoys  of 
hiring  and  indenturing  servants  for  the  purpose  of  working 
the  same.  And  being  of  this  opinion,  I  am,  of  course,  in  favour 
of  a  convention,  for  that  object  can  only  be  effected  through 
the  means  of  another  convention,  our  present  constitution 
having  limited  the  time  during  which  that  privilege  may  be 

4  Edwardsville  Spectator,  July  4,  n,  25,  August  i,  1820;  Illinois  Gazette, 
August  5,  1820.  Much  of  the  material  for  the  remainder  of  the  chapter  is  found 
in  contemporary  numbers  of  the  Illinois  Intelligencer  and  Edwardsville  Spec- 
tator, 


74  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

claimed  to  the  year  i825."5  He  alleged  as  reasons  for 
speedy  action  the  fact  that  the  salines  in  the  neighborhood 
kept  money  in  circulation,  and  business  good,  and  the  time 
when  western  Illinois  was  still  dependent  on  Illinois  salt 
was,  he  thought,  the  favorable  moment  to  strike.  The 
economic  interest  of  eastern  Illinois  in  the  call  of  a  conven- 
tion is  obvious.  Eddy  was  elected  and  duly  introduced  into 
the  Illinois  general  assembly  resolutions  corresponding  to  his 
proposal. 

Widespread  financial  distress  in  Illinois  in  the  years  im- 
mediately following  1820  insured  a  favorable  hearing  to  advo- 
cates of  a  fundamental  change  in  the  economic  order.  The  act 
of  1820  abolishing  credit  sales  and  lowering  the  price  of  public 
lands  to  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  necessarily  caused  financial 
embarrassment  and  reduced  the  value  of  lands  in  private 
hands.6  It  was  a  period  of  hard  times  which  in  1821  prompted 
the  establishment  of  a  state  bank  distinctly  as  an  institution  to 
afford  relief.  It  was  not  surprising  that  many  should  have 
listened  to  the  assertions  of  the  slavery  party  that  the  admission 
of  the  institution  would  bring  in  planters  with  ready  money  who 
would  spend  it  freely  and  who  would  especially  use  it  in  buying 
up  at  good  prices  the  farms  of  those  anxious  to  leave  the  state. 
Many  a  man  naturally  opposed  to  slavery  may  well  have 
wished  for  the  institution  that  he  might  sell  his  property  and  flee 
from  the  wrath  to  come. 

/  The  canvass  for  governor  in  1822  turned  frankly  on  the 
question  of  slavery.  Joseph  B.  Phillips,  who  announced  his 
candidacy  February  20,  1821,  was  soon  accused  by  letters  in 
the  Spectator  of  designing  to  introduce  limited  slavery  and  thus 
pave  the  way  for  a  complete  extension  of  the  institution  to  the 
state.  At  first  Phillips'  friends  denied  the  charge;  but  July  3 
the  Intelligencer  published  a  letter  which  admitted  Phillips' 
proslavery_leanings,  assured  the  proslavery  forces  in  the~state 
that  they  had  a  majority,  and  called  on  them  to  rally  for  the 

5  Illinois  Gazette,  July  8,  1820. 
*  Ibid.,  July  31,  1824. 


THE   CONVENTION   STRUGGLE          75 

cause  and  no  longer  to  be  withheld  by  mere  sentiment  from  pur- 
suing the  true  interests  of  the  state.7 

Curiously  enough  such  announcements  did  not  seem  to 
cause  excitement  The  Intelligencer  began  publishing  a  series 
of  scriptural  parodies  which  touched  on  Phillips'  alleged  con- 
version from  slavery  advocacy  on  a  former  occasion  for  the 
sake  of  a  seat  in  the  supreme  court.  The  Spectator  contented 
itself  with  pronouncing  the  scheme  chimerical  and  with  warning 
the  voters  to  beware  of  the  many  wealthy  men  who  wished  to 
own  slaves  and  to  use  care  in  selecting  their  representatives. 
Instead  of  pressing  the  proslavery  charge  against  Phillips  it 
printed  letters  depicting  the  evil  results  of  the  activity  of  judges 
in  politics  and  accusing  Phillips  of  blasphemy,  irreligion,  and 
gambling.8 

Edward  Coles  who  announced  his  candidacy  October  30, 
182!,  might  have  been  expected  to  find  greater  favor  in  the 
sight  of  an  antislavery  man  like  Hooper  Warren.  Coles  was 
a  Virginian  of  the  planter  class  who  had  served  as  private 
secretary  to  Madison  and  who  had  been  sent  on  a  special 
mission  to  Russia.  By  inheritance  a  slave  owner,  he  had  emi- 
grated to  Illinois  that  he  might  free  his  Negroes  and  establish 
them  on  land  of  their  own  in  a  free  state.  It  is  significant  of  a 
certain  feeling  for  the  dramatic  in  the  man  that  he  reserved 
the  announcement  of  their  freedom  to  his  slaves  to  a  beautiful 
morning  in  April  as  his  boats  were  gliding  down  the  Ohio 
below  Pittsburg.  Principle  was  the  food  on  which  his  soul 
was  nourished;  in  their  cooler  moments  even  his  bitter  enemies 
were  compelled  to  admit  his  untarnished  integrity.  Withal 
there  was  about  him  a  certain  stiffness,  a  certain  consciousness 
of  his  own  virtue,  possibly  a  tendency  to  pose.  For  some 
reason  his  personality  seemed  to  grate  on  Hooper  Warren, 
who  consistently  assailed  him  in  the  Spectator  with  a  studied 
malice  that  was  so  obvious  as  to  defeat  its  own  end.  He  made 
clumsy  mockery  of  Coles'  somewhat  awkward  attempts  to 

7  Edtvardsville  Spectator,  April  10,  1821;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  July  3,  1821. 

8  Ed<wards<ville  Spectator,  May  22,  November  6,  27,   1821;   Illinois  Intelli- 
gencer, July  31,  1821. 


76  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

mingle  familiarly  with  men.  On  the  ground  that  Coles  was 
register  of  the  Edwardsville  land  office,  Warren  represented 
him  as  a  federal  appointee  from  without  the  state.  He  even 
juestioned  the  sincerity  of  Coles'  opposition  to  a  convention 
md  tried  to  fix  on  him  the  stigma  of  holding  slaves  in 
[issouri.9 

The  Edwards  faction,  unable  to  agree  on  a  candidate  of  its 
'own  for  governor,  was  apparently  hostile  not  only  to  its  old 
enemy,  Phillips,  but  also  to  Coles  and  to  a  third  candidate, 
James  B.  Moore.  In  the  case  of  Coles  at  least  the  hostility  was 
natural  as  Coles  was  a  supporter  of  Edwards'  enemy,  Secretary 
William  H.  Crawford.  Pope  and  other  members  of  the  faction 
endeavored  to  persuade  Edwards  to  run ;  when  he  refused  they 
considered  John  Reynolds.  Finally  Pope,  having  come  to  a 
decision  in  favor  of  some  candidate,  tried,  much  to  Edwards' 
displeasure,  to  bind  the  party  to  his  choice.  Probably  this 
candidate  was  Thomas  C.  Browne  of  the  supreme  court,  who 
had  been  quietly  making  ready  for  some  time  but  who 
announced  his  candidacy  only  at  the  end  of  the  campaign.  He 
did  not  gain  the  full  support  of  the  Edwards  party,  Edwards 
flatly  refusing  to  take  any  part  in  the  contest.10 

4  Coles  was  elected  by  a  narrow  margin.    He  received  2,854 
tes^tcnZj'S^yTor  ?hillips,  2,443  f°r  Browne,  and  622  for 
oore.     Certainly  the  Edwards  faction  had  not  efficiently 
'  exerted  itself  for  any  candidate;  and  while  there  is  little  evi- 
dence in  regard  to  the  activity  of  their  opponents  it  seems 
unlikely  that  the  selection  turned  in  any  decisive  fashion  on 
factional  alignments.    Apparently  the  personality  and  opinions 
of  the  candidates  played  a  controlling  part. 

Coles,  evidently  concluding  that  the  bold  course  was  the 
safe  one,  determined  to  force  the  fighting  on  the  slavery  issue. 
In  his  message  to  the  assembly  in  December  he  pointed  out 
the  fact  that  slavery,  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  northwest 

9  Edtoardsvllle  Spectator,  April  9,  1822. 

10  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  190-192.    This  is  a  draft  letter  of  Edwards 
which  Washburne  surmised  was  written  to  Governor  Bond.     Internal  evidence 
shows  without  doubt  it  was  to  Pope. 


[From  original  owned  by  Chicago  Historical  Society] 


77] 

ordinance,  existed  in  the  state  and  concluded  that  the  provision 
of  the  act  of  cession  protecting  the  French  inhabitants  could  be 
regarded  as  having  expired  after  the  passage  of  forty  years; 
he  suggested  the  abolition  of  the  institution,  the  repeal  of  the 
black  code,  and  the  passage  of  effectual  laws  against  the  kid- 
napping of  free  blacks.  A  majority  of  the  senate  committee 
to  which  the  antislavery  recommendations  of  the  governor 
were  referred — Risdon  Moore  and  John  Emmet  —  submitted 
a  favorable  report.  The  minority  member,  Conrad  Will,  dis- 
sented. The  house  committee  returned  an  unfavorable  report. 
Both  these  dissenting  reports  declared  the  abolition  of  the 
slavery  existing  in  the  state  to  be  beyond  the  power  of  the 
legislature.  The  senate  report  argued  that  the  convention  of 
1 8 1 8  had  been  hampered  by  the  provisions  of  the  Ordinance  of 
1787  but  that  as  a  sovereign  state  Illinois  could  deal  with  the 
whole  question  in  a  new  constitutional  convention.  This,  the 
senate  report  concluded  with  clumsy  irony,  was  the  only  way 
of  settling  the  question  that  the  governor  had  at  heart. 

The  slavery  advocates  now  openly  set  about  submitting  the 
question  of  a  convention  to  popular  vote.  The  senate  off 
but  little  opposition.  There,  on  February  10,  1823,  the  resolu- 
tion passed  twelve  to  six.  The  canal  bill  was  before  the  senate 
at  the  same  time  with  the  resolution  for  a  convention,  indeed 
it  was  passed  with  a  negative  vote  of  only  three  immediately 
after  the  passage  of  the  convention  resolution.  In  both  houses 
the  pro-convention  group  captured  some  votes  by  threatening 
the  canal  bill  with  destruction  unless  the  convention  resolution 
went  through.  They  brought  into  play  every  form  of  petty 
politics.  Sometimes  they  brought  pressure  on  individual  mem- 
bers by  introducing  bills  that  would  if  passed  irritate  their 
constituents.  Sometimes  they  resorted  to  bargains  on  the 
location  of  county  seats  and  the  creation  of  new  counties. 
Sometimes  they  drummed  up  among  a  recalcitrant  member's 
constituents  instructions  in  favor  of  a  convention. 

In  the  house  the  convention  party  tried  ftfrgst  vote   on  \ 
January  27  and  found  twenty-two  affirmative  and  fourteen  / 


78  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

negative  votes,  the  latter  including  William  McFatridge  and 
Thomas  Rattan  who  finally  voted  for  the  convention.  It  was 
evident  that  the  vote  would  be  a  close  one,  and  on  January  29 
a  resolution  formerly  presented  by  A.  P.  Field  to  the  effect 
that  the  two-thirds  vote  requisite  to  pass  the  resolution  was  a 
two-thirds  vote  of  both  houses  sitting  together  was  reconsid- 
ered and  passed.  This  device,  however,  can  have  been  in- 
tended to  serve  only  as  a  last  resort 

The  pro-convention  leaders  were  suspicious,  with  good 
/reason  as  it  proved,  of  the  loyalty  of  some  who  had  hitherto 
/voted  with  them,  notably  of  Nicholas  Hansen,  the  member 
s  from  the  Military  Tract.  Hansen  they  apparently  hoped  to 
keep  in  line,  however,  by  threatening  him  with  bills  which 
would  injure  his  district  and  through  the  fact  that  his  name 
was  on  the  list  of  commissioners  in  the  canal  bill.  When  the 
vote  in  the  house  of  representatives  was  taken  February  1 1 
on  the  senate  resolution  for  a  convention,  Hansen  deserted; 
and  the  vote  stood  twenty-three  to  thirteen.  Dumbfounded 
apparently  by  the  reverse,  the  convention  party  moved  to  recon- 
sider; but  a  vote  of  nineteen  to  sixteen  sustained  the  chair  in 
the  obvious  decision  that  on  a  vote  lost  for  want  of  two-thirds, 
the  motion  to  reconsider  must  come  from  a  member  of  the 
minority.  James  Turney  moved  that  the  senate  be  requested 
to  state  the  number  voting  for  and  against  the  resolution  in 
that  house,  obviously  an  attempt  to  enforce  the  interpretation 
that  two-thirds  of  both  houses  together  would  suffice.  The 
legislature  adjourned  in  confusion.  That  night  a  mob  of  legis- 
lators headed  by  a  justice  of  the  supreme  court,  furious  at  their 
defeat,  groaned  under  the  window  of  one  of  the  anti-conven- 
tion leaders,  George  Churchill,  and  burned  Hansen  in  effigy.11 
The  convention  leaders  probably  decided  over  night  on  the 
means  to  retrieve  their  defeat — the  unseating  of  Hansen.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  session  Hansen's  seat  had  been  contested 
by  John  Shaw.  Elections  in  Shaw's  "  Kingdom  of  Pike  "  were 
strange  matters;  in  this  particular  one  a  dispute  about  the 

11  Edivardsville  Spectator,  February  15,  March  29,  1823. 


THE   CONVENTION   STRUGGLE          79 

judges  of  election  in  one  precinct  had  resulted  in  eighty-three 
votes  for  Shaw  in  a  polling  place  set  up  by  the  electors  and  of 
twelve  votes  for  Hansen  in  another  one  presided  over  by  the 
regular  judges  of  election.  The  returns  for  Shaw  were  thrown 
out;  he  filed  notice  of  a  contest  but  at  Hansen's  request  he  let 
it  be  held  over  for  a  few  days  and  did  not  file  it  again  until  the 
legal  time  for  filing  had  expired.  The  house  committee  on 
elections  seated  Hansen,  very  possibly  because  he  was  a  bitter 
enemy  of  Edwards  and  could  therefore  be  trusted  to  vote  for 
Thomas  for  senator.  Certainly  inasmuch  as  they  threw  out 
Shaw's  contest  on  the  ground  that  it  had  been  filed  too  late; 
and,  since  the  delay  occurred  at  Hansen's  request  and  for  his 
benefit,  the  equity  of  their  procedure  is  not  very  clear.  The 
seating  of  Hansen,  however,  as  compared  with  his  unseating 
on  February  12  was  the  quintessence  of  justice  and  orderly 
procedure.12 

On  the  twelfth  of  February,  a  day  by  a  curious  coincidence 
commemorative  of  a  greater  struggle  with  slavery,  the  general 
assembly  convened  for  as  strange  a  day's  work  as  ever  was  done 
by  an  Anglo-Saxon  parliament.  The  house  by  a  division  of 
twenty-one  to  thirteen  ordered  a  reconsideration  of  the  report, 
accepted  two  months  before,  that  Hansen  was  entitled  to  a 
seat;  it  considered  certain  documents  laid  before  it,  notably  an 
affidavit  that  to  the  affiants'  belief  a  majority  of  the  votes  were 
cast  for  Shaw;  and  the  conventionist  members  offered  what 
reasons  they  could  for  the  course  they  were  about  to  take.  By 
a  vote  of  twenty-oneVo  fourteen  the  name  of  Shaw  was  substi- 
tuted for  that  of  Hansen  in  the  report.  Shaw  now  took  his 


seat,  and  Turney  moved  to   reconsider  an  appeal  from  the 
decision  of  the  chair  on  a  motion  for  a  reconsideration  of  the 
convention  resolution.     The  decision  was  reversed,  the  recon- 
sideration  ordered;   and   the   resolution   for   the   conventioi 
passed  twenty-four  to  twelve.     It  only  remained  to  chastise 

12  Stevens,  "  The  Shaw-Hansen  Election  Contest,"  in  Illinois  State  Historical 
Society,  Journal,  7:389  ff. ;  Edwardsville  Spectator,  February  15,  March  9,  1823. 
I  believe  the  evidence  to  the  effect  that  Hansen  was  originally  seated  to  gain 
his  vote  for  Thomas  is  better  than  Mr.  Stevens  judges  it. 


80  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Hansen;  and  his  name,  on  Field's  motion,  was  stricken  out  of 
the  list  of  canal  commissioners.13 

Conventionists  and  anti-conventionists  began  immediately 
to  organize  for  the  eighteen  months  campaign  before  the  people 
on  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  the  proposed  call  for  a  con- 
vention.    The  advocates  of  a  convention  held  a  meeting  at 
Vandalia  February  15  and  appointed  a  committee  to  prepare 
an  address  and  resolutions  which  defended  the  call  of  a  conven- 
tion on  various  grounds  not  connected  with  the  slavery  issue. 
On  February   18,   fifteen  of  the   eighteen  members   of  the 
I  assembly  who  voted  against  the  convention  held  a  meeting  and 
1  adopted  an  address  arraigning  the  methods  of  the  majority 
I  and  exposing  their  design  of  introducing  slavery.    The  persons 
J  present  agreed  to  subscribe  each  for  a  given  number  of  copies 
of  the  Spectator  provided  Warren's  loyalty  to  the  cause  were 

assured.14 
i 

The  opponents  of  a  convention  pushed  the  work  of  local 
organization.  On  March  22  the  "St.  Clair  Society  for  the 
prevention  of  slavery  in  the  state  of  Illinois"  was  organized 
for  the  purpose  of  "  disseminating  light  and  knowledge  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  by  cool  and  dispassionate  reasoning,  by 
circulating  pamphlets,  handbills,  and  other  publications."  A 
similar  society  was  formed  May  9  in  Monroe  possibly  with 
but  a  small  membership.  In  the  next  month  an  organization 
similar  to  that  of  St.  Clair  was  formed  in  Edwardsville,  though 
it  did  not  specify  the  nature  of  the  propaganda  to  be  under- 
taken. On  the  fourth  of  July  citizens  of  Morgan  established 
a  more  elaborate  organization  apparently  designed  to  support 
antislavery  candidates  for  office.15 

As  the  day  of  the  election  approached,  the  opponents  of 
slavery  held  caucuses  or  conventions  to  nominate  anti-conven- 

13  That  Coles,  as  Hooper  Warren  insinuated,  had  bought  Hansen  over  by  a 
promise  of  the  recordership  of  Fulton  county  is  unlikely.    The  bargain  could  not 
possibly  have  been  consummated  after  the  consideration  had  been  earned.     Ed- 
ivardsville  Spectator,  February  15,  1823. 

14  Ibid.,  March  i,  1823. 

15  Ibid.,  April  12,  July  12,  September  20,   1823;   Illinois  Intelligencer,  July 
26,  1823. 


THE   CONVENTION   STRUGGLE          81 

tion  candidates.  They  drew  the  issue  even  in  contests  for 
local  offices ;  and  naturally  in  legislative  elections  they  concerted 
measures  to  prevent  divisions  of  the  anti-conventionist  forces 
and  a  possible  recurrence  of  the  events  of  1823.  In  St.  Clair 
county  a  convention  made  up  of  delegates  elected  in  each 
township  was  called  to  nominate  county  and  legislative  candi- 
dates. A  similar  call  was  issued  in  Bond,  Fayette,  and 
Montgomery  for  the  choice  of  a  candidate  for  senator.  All 
this  the  convention  party  denounced  as  caucus  methods. 

From  the  sources  of  information  available  the  convention- 
ists  appear  to  have  been  slower  in  organizing  than  their 
opponents.  In  August  a  meeting  in  Madison  county  recom- 
mended the  appointment  of  township  committees  to  promote 
the  cause  of  the  convention;  in  October,  1823,  and  March, 
1824,  township  party  organization  was  adopted  in  White  and 
Wayne  counties.  The  anti-conventionists  averred  that  on 
December  3,  1823,  a  convention  meeting  at  Vandalia  adopted 
a  state  organization  consisting  of  a  central  committee  of  ten, 
and  committees  of  five  in  each  county,  and  of  three  in  each, 
township.16 

The  conventionists  complained  of  the  influence  of  the  clergy 
which  was  generally  thrown  on  the  antislavery  side.  The 
Christian  church  conference  located  on  the  Wabash  and  a 
Baptist  sect,  the  Friends  of  Humanity,  both  denounced  slavery 
as  a  sin.  The  Methodist  circuit  riders  and  preachers  assailed 
slavery  and  slaveholders  to  the  point  of  provoking  bitter 
retorts.  Conventionists  accused  them  of  denouncing  slavery 
in  Illinois  and  stopping  at  the  houses  of  slaveholders  in  Mis- 
souri and  pronounced  their  real  dislike  of  a  convention  due  to 
the  fear  that  it  might  exclude  them  from  the  legislature.  The 
Illinois  Republican  was  so  prolific  in  abuse  of  this  sort  that 
Warren  took  occasion  to  brand  it  as  hostile  to  the  Methodists 
as  a  body.  He  believed  further,  he  said,  that  the  clergy  of  all 
denominations  were  zealous  in  opposition  to  the  convention. 

18  Edwardsvillt  Spectator,  January  27,  February  17,  April  13,  1824;  Illinois 
Intelligencer,  November  i,  December  6,  1823 ;  Illinois  Gazette,  April  10,  1824. 


82  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

Illinois  tradition  affirms  that  John  Mason  Peck  labored  assidu- 
ously against  a  convention  though  no  contemporary  evidence 
of  his  activity  appears.17 

In  newspaper  publicity  the  resources  of  the  two  parties 
were  more  evenly  divided.  For  Henry  Eddy's  Illinois  Gazette 
the  politic  course  was  proslavery,  and  while  the  paper  admitted 
articles  on  both  sides  its  guarded  expressions  of  sympathy  were 
for  the  convention.  Coles  at  the  beginning  of  the  struggle 
suggested  that  Morris  Birkbeck  and  Richard  Flower  establish 
an  anti-convention  newspaper  for  eastern  Illinois  at  Albion, 
but  the  suggestion  was  never  carried  out  Coles  had  hopes 
of  the  support  of  the  Kaskaskia  Republican  Advocate  till  April 
of  1823;  but  finally  under  the  editorship  of  R.  K.  Fleming  it 
supported  the  convention,  as  did  the  Illinois  Republican  at 
Edwardsville.18 

The  editors  of  the  Illinois  Intelligencer,  William  H.  Brown 
and  William  Berry,  disagreed  on  the  issue  involved  in  the  con- 
vention struggle.  In  order  to  force  out  the  anti-conventionist 
Brown,  the  assembly  before  adjournment  voted  the  public 
printing  to  Berry  and  Robert  Blackwell.  Under  the  new  pub- 
lishers the  newspaper  at  once  took  up  the  cause  of  the 
convention.  A  year  later,  however,  with  its  purchase  by  Coles 
and  a  coterie  of  anti-conventionists,  David  Blackwell  replaced 
his  brother  as  editor;  and  the  Intelligencer  became  an  open 
opponent  of  slavery.19  The  Edwardsville  Spectator  at  the 
beginning  of  the  struggle  pursued  an  anomalous  course.  Its 
strictures  on  the  Shaw-Hansen  scandal  were  those  rather  of 
an  enemy  of  Edward  Coles  and  Nicholas  Hansen  than  of  an 
opponent  of  the  convention.  T.  W.  Smith  hoped  for  a  time 
to  win  Warren  over;  but  the  anti-convention  forces  by  promises 
of  financial  support  assured  the  newspaper's  loyalty  to  the  side 
of  freedom. 

Coles  further  sought  support  from  outside  the  state.    His 

17  Ediuardsville  Spectator,  May  24,  August  2,  November  i,  22,  1823  ;  Illinois 
Intelligencer,  May  17,  July  5,  August  23,  1823,  May  17,  1824. 
18Washburne,  Edward  Coles,  178. 
id.,  167. 


THE   CONVENTION   STRUGGLE  83 

friendship  with  Nicholas  Biddle  introduced  him  to  certain 
Philadelphia  Quakers  who  supplied  him  with  antislavery  tracts 
for  distribution  by  the  thousand.  These  were  forwarded  to 
St.  Louis  merchants  along  with  their  goods  and  were  thence 
forwarded  to  Coles.  Their  source  apparently  was  never 
learned  by  the  conventionists.  Had  it  been  there  would  doubt- 
less have  arisen  a  tremendous  outcry  against  the  interference 
of  citizens  of  other  states  in  the  affairs  of  Illinois.20 

The  conventionists  entered  the  controversy  with  their 
opponents  under  one  serious  handicap.  They  apparently 
judged  it  unwise  to  take  an  irrevocable  position  that  the  con- 
vention was  designed  to  introduce  slavery;  yet  they  did  not 
positively  deny  that  some  alteration  in  that  direction  was 
intended.  There  was  an  undercurrent  of  slavery  sentiment 
noticeable  in  all  their  manifestoes.  At  the  beginning,  however, 
they  emphasized  the  anti-conventionist  opposition  to  submitting 
the  question  of  a  convention  to  the  people,  representing  it  as  ; 
denial  of  the  popular  right  to  alter  and  remodel  the  governmen 
at  will.  The  anti-conventionists,  they  said,  were  unwilling  tc 
trust  the  people;  they  were  contemners  of  instructions  from 
their  constituents;  they  were  even  federalists.  On  the  other 
hand  the  anti-convention  party  argued  that  the  convention 
which  would  be  called  would  not  carry  out  the  will  of  the 
people.  They  pointed  to  the  fact  that  under  the  existing 
system  of  representation,  eight  northern  counties  would  have 
eight  members  in  a  convention  and  nine  southern  and  eastern 
ones,  with  substantially  the  same  number  of  voters,  fifteen. 
Once  the  southern  counties  on  indifferent  grounds  had  secured 
a  convention,  their  delegates  in  it  could  decide  as  they  would 
the  question  of  slavery  and  freedom.21 

Meanwhile  the  conventionists  were  all  things  to  all  men. 
"They  avow  the  object  to  be,"  said  one  writer,  "to  amendi 
the  particular  defect  which  you  may  imagine  the  constitution/ 
to  have.  Thus  if  you  should  be  in  favor  of  removing  the  seat 

20Washburne,  Edward  Coles,  154-164. 

21  Illinois  Intelligencer,  March  8,  29,  May  31,  1823;  Edviardsville  Spectator, 
March  i,  April  12,  1823 ;  Kaskaskia  Republican,  April  20,  1824. 


84  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

of  government  to  Alton  or  to  Carmi,  to  Edwardsville  or  to 
Palestine,  Kaskaskia,  Covington  or  [MS.  torn]  [be]  assured 
that  his  particular  wish  will  be  effected  by  having  a  convention. 
If  you  have  no  other  objection  to  the  constitution  but  the  county 
commissioners  court  and  the  council  of  revision,  then  these  are 
the  only  alterations  that  will  be  made  to  it.  If  one  is  in  favor 
of  altering  the  constitution  and  appointing  the  judges  for  a 
term  of  years,  he  is  assured  that  that  is  one  of  the  principal 
objects  to  be  effected;  if  on  the  other  hand  another  should  be 
opposed  to  it  he  will  be  assured  there  is  no  danger  of  such  an 
alteration  being  adopted.  If  one  is  opposed  to  the  extension 
of  Slavery,  he  will  be  told  that  it  is  not  contemplated,  and  that 
if  it  were  to  be  attempted,  it  could  not  be  effected.  If  on  the 
other  hand  he  should  be  in  favor  of  making  this  a  slave  holding 
state,  he  is  assured  that  that  is  the  great  and  chief  object  in 
view."22  Such  were  the  types  of  argument  employed.  The 
antislavery  party  answered  them  by  pointing  out  for  instance 
that  the  constitutional  provision  regulating  county  commis- 
sioners was  so  elastic  that  it  said  nothing  of  the  duties  or  pay 
of  the  commissioners,  or  by  stating  that  Elias  K.  Kane  of  the 
.convention  party  had  himself  been  the  sponsor  for  the  council 
of  revision.23 

Where   slavery,   limited   or  unlimited,   was   the   avowed 

motive  for  the  convention,   the   arguments  varied.     In   the 

-.  neighborhood  of  the  Gallatin  saline,  the  Illinois  Gazette  printed 

\  articles  dwelling  on  the  advantage  to  accrue  from  the  renewal 

I  of  the  supply  of  indentured  Negroes,  which  otherwise  under 

the  existing  constitution  would  be  cut  off  in  1825.     Starting 

from  the  propositions  that  it  was  vain  to  expect  a  sufficient 

supply  of  white  labor  to  man  the  salt  works,  since  not  even 

enough  to  supply  the  saline  with  agricultural  produce  was 

forthcoming,  and  that  the  work  in  so  warm  a  climate  could  be 

I  performed  only  by  Negroes,  they  concluded  that  the  welfare 

of  the  saline  was  bound  up  in  slave  labor,  and  that  the  pros- 

22  Edwards-wile  Spectator,  May  25,  1824. 

23  Ibid.,  March  2,  April  13,  1824. 


THE    CONVENTION    STRUGGLE  85 

parity  of  the  whole  district  depended  on  the  salines.  Such 
arguments  were  used  to  persuade  the  people  of  Gallatin  that 
slavery  was  an  object  well  worth  buying  at  the  expense  of 
support  to  the  canal,  even  though  the  latter  would  diminish  the 
importance  of  their  county  as  the  gateway  to  Illinois.24 

So  far  as  the  conventionists  undertook  to  justify  slavery  in 
the  abstract  they  relied  on  the  current  method  of  reasoning  of 
the  day  —  what  may  be  called  the  diffusion  argument.  Admit- 
ting that  the  presence  of  slavery  in  America  was  a  thing  bitterly 
to  be  deplored,  they  proposed  so  far  as  was  possible  to  amelio- 
rate the  situation  by  extending  as  widely  as  possible  the  area 
in  which  slaves  were  to  be  found.  This  would  not  only  improve 
the  material  condition  of  the  slaves  by  enabling  their  masters 
to  keep  them  in  a  country  where  food  was  cheap  but  in  the  long 
run  would  tend  to  bring  about  their  emancipation.  "Usually 
the  conventionists  claimed  that  their  intention  was  at  most  only 
to  introduce  a  limited  slavery  which  in  time  would  abolish  itself. 
Sometimes  they  suggested  provisions  by  which  a  man  might 
hold  a  limited  number  of  slaves  for  a  term  of  years,  the 
offspring  of  the  slaves  to  be  free  at  a  certain  age.  Lest  the 
state  be  overrun  with  free  blacks,  the  freedmen  were  to  be  sent 
to  Africa  by  that  fashionable  slavery  specific,  the  Colonization 
Society.25 

For  this  policy  advantages  both  moral  and  material  were 
claimed.  Many  slaveholders,  it  was  said,  who  disapproved  of 
the  institution  would  be  glad  to  avail  themselves  of  so  excellent 
a  scheme.  It  would  extend  Christianity  among  the  Negroes, 
supply  labor  of  a  type  adapted  to  clear  the  soil  without  suffering 
the  sickness  that  impaired  the  strength  of  the  white  settlers  and 
suited  to  the  menial  tasks  of  drawing  water  and  making  fires 
in  the  salt  works,  which  Adolphus  Frederick  Hubbard  had 
singled  out  as  the  duties  prescribed  to  Negroes  by  the  laws  of 
nature.  In  the  background  of  the  minds  of  advocates  of  this 

34  Illinois  Intelligencer,  June  28,  July  5,  1823;  Illinois  Gazette,  July  5,  1823, 
January  10,  1824. 

25  Kaskaskia  Republican,  March  30,  1824;  Illinois  Gazette,  October  n,  De- 
cember 20,  1823,  January  10,  April  17,  1824;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  November 
22.  1823. 


86  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 


benevolent  scheme  was  often  the  idea  that  the  philanthropic 
slaveholders  who  entered  the  state  would  buy  lands  and 
improvements  from  the  pioneers  then  in  possession  and  would 
with  their  wealth  form  a  welcome  addition  to  the  upper  classes 
of  the  population.  The  complacent  smugness  of  such  argu- 
ments which  passed  current  in  the  Gazette  particularly  prompts 
a  savage  desire  to  let  a  sentence  which  was  written  in  all 
seriousness  stand  as  a  caricature  of  them.  After  commenting 
on  the  fact  that  the  great  men  of  the  state  were  all  slaveholders 
the  writer  added:  "Other  strong  inducements  I  have  for  the 
introduction  of  slavery  into  this  state  are,  that  in  the  sickly 
season,  the  sick  could  have  more  attention  paid  them  —  the 
community  would  flourish,  our  state  would  be  more  republican, 
and  more  populous  —  the  condition  of  the  slaves  much  amelio- 
rated, and  the  several  churches  of  Christ  would  be  considerably 
enlarged."26 

The  antislavery  writers  in  their  range  of  arguments  well- 
nigh  ran  the  gamut.  There  is  hardly  a  line  of  argument  used 
by  the  abolitionists  of  later  days  but  has  its  prototype  in  this 
period.  The  question  of  the  validity  of  the  slavery  prohibition 
in  the  Ordinance  of  1787  and  of  the  guarantee  in  the  Virginia 
deed  of  cession  was  debated  at  length.27  The  pretense  of 
biblical  authority  for  the  institution  was  exposed  by  a  keen 
,  analysis  of  the  limited  slavery  of  the  Jewish  law  as  revealed  in 
the  books  of  Moses.  Slavery  in  itself  was  denounced  as  a  sin 
and  the  parent  of  vices  and  sins;  it  was  declared  contrary  to 
the  fundamental  principle  enunciated  by  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  that  all  men  are  created  equal.  Sketches  descrip- 
tive of  the  misery  of  the  slave  appeared  set  in  language 
appealing  to  the  emotions  as  frankly  as  did  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin.  Above  all  the  antislavery  pamphleteers  insisted  that 
slavery  was  a  moral  issue  and  this  more  than  a  quarter  century 
before  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates.28  The  following  passage 

26  Illinois  Intelligencer,  April  26,  1823. 

27  See  above  p.  47-50. 

28  Edwardsvllle  Spectator,  July  12,  August  16,  1823;  Illinois  Gazette,  Novem- 
ber 8,  1823. 


THE   CONVENTION   STRUGGLE  87 

is  a  startling  analogy  to  a  well-known  memorandum  of  Lin- 
coln's "  Is  it  not  quite  as  unjust,  because  some  men  are  black, 
to  say  there  is  a  natural  distinction  as  to  them ;  and  that  black 
men,  because  they  are  black,  ought  to  be  slaves  ...  is  it  not 
the  hight  [sic]  of  arrogance  to  allege  that  because  we  have 
strong  feelings  and  cultivated  minds  it  would  be  great  cru[el]ty 
to  make  slaves  of  us;  but  that  because  they  are  yet  ignorant  and 
uncultivated,  it  is  no  injury  at  all  to  them?  Such  a  principle 
once  admitted  lays  the  foundation  of  a  tyranny  and  injuce[jfc] 
that  have  no  end."29 

On  material  grounds  the  opponents  of  slavery  pointed  out 
the  flaws  in  the  diffusion  argument.  The  history  of  mankind 
and  of  the  slave  trade  from  Africa  and  from  the  old  south  was 
cited  to  show  that  no  matter  how  great  the  drain  from  it  a 
reservoir  of  population  always  filled  again  to  its  ancient  level. 
Slavery  in  Illinois  it  was  said  would  only  increase  the  demand 
for  slaves  and  provoke  anew  kidnapping  and  the  slave  trade. 
Nay  furthermore  as  the  cool  climate  of  Illinois  unfitted  it  for 
the  slave  crops  but  adapted  it  as  a  home  for  men,  the  state 
would  be  degraded  to  a  breeding  ground  of  slaves  for  the 
southern  market! 

To  the  man  of  today,  however,  the  most  powerfully  con- 
vincing arguments  against  slavery  were  those  which  warned 
the  free  farmer  of  Illinois  of  the  ruin  that  the  introduction  of 
the  institution  would  bring  upon  him.  Here  the  slavery  penmen 
were  face  to  face  with  overwhelming  odds  in  the  character  of 
the  combatants  who  opposed  them.  Confronting  them  was 
Morris  Birkbeck,  a  man  trained  in  the  principles  of  human 
liberty,  intellectually  the  descendant  of  well-nigh  six  generations 
of  radicals  who  had  labored  for  the  people's  freedom.  The 
conventionists  who  opposed  the  petty  tricks  of  political  election- 
eering or  addresses  smacking  of  the  college  debating  hall  to 
the  writings  of  Birkbeck  were  holding  up  a  lath  sword  against 
the  hammer  of  Thor.  With  a  greater  cause  than  Swift's  to 
inspire  him  the  author  of  the  earlier  letters  of  "Jonathan  ' 

29  Illinois  Intelligencer,  May  21,  1824. 


88  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

Freeman  "  may  claim  a  comparison  not  discreditable  with  "  the 
Drapier's"  letters.  Birkbeck,  knowing  how  to  make  a  phrase 
of  homely  English  do  the  work  of  a  highly  polished  paragraph, 
in  his  "Jonathan  Freeman"  letters  strove  in  simple  language 
to  inspire  the  small  farmer  who  was  dispirited  by  hard  times 
to  renew  his  faith  in  his  ability  to  subdue  the  land  and  possess 
it  without  calling  in  slaveholders. 

"  I  am  a  poor  man,  that  is  to  say,  I  have  no  money — but  I 
have  a  house  to  cover  me  and  the  rest  of  us,  a  stable  for  my 
horses,  and  a  little  barn,  on  a  quarter  of  good  land,  paid  up  at 
the  land  office,  with  a  middling  fine  clearing  upon  it.  ...  We 
help  our  neighbors,  who  are  generally  as  poor  as  ourselves;  — 
some  that  are  new-comers  are  not  so  well  fixed.  They  help  us 
in  turn,  and  as  it  is  the  fashion  to  be  industrious,  I  discover  that 
we  are  all  by  degrees  growing  wealthy  —  not  in  money,  to  be 
sure,  but  in  truck. 

"There  is  a  great  stir  among  the  landjobbers  and  politi- 
cians to  get  slaves  into  the  country,  because,  as  they  say, 
we  are  in  great  distress;  and  I  have  been  thinking  pretty 
much  about  how  it  would  act  with  me  and  my  neighbors.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  lately  seen  people  from  Kentucky  .  .  .  are  as  bad 
off  for  money  as  we  —  some  say  worse.  .  .  .  As  money  seems 
to  be  all  we  want,  and  they  want  it  just  as  much  as  we  do,  I 
don't  see  how  those  Slave  Gentry  are  to  make  it  plenty."  He 
believed  that  farmers  wanting  to  sell  out  would  not  be  able  to 
sell  their  improvements  to  slaveholders,  for  "they  can  get 
Congress  land  at  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  an  acre.  It  is  men  who 
come  from  free  states  with  money  in  their  pockets,  and  no 
work-hands  about  them,  that  buy  improvements."30  As  for 
the  saline,  white  workmen  would  flock  to  it  once  the  Negroes 
were  excluded.  The  scarcity  of  which  the  farmers  complained 
was  not  a  scarcity  of  the  essentials  of  a  healthy  robust  life,  but 
merely  a  scarcity  of  the  money  to  purchase  luxuries.  Instead 
of  repining  because  their  produce  brought  little  in  the  New 

30  Edwards® ille  Spectator,  November  i,  1823.  The  slaveholder  was  an  em- 
ployer of  Negro,  not  of  white  labor,  and  his  money  would  be  spent  not  in  the 
state  but  in  the  east  for  luxuries. 


THE   CONVENTION   STRUGGLE  89 

Orleans  market,  they  should  learn  to  produce  at  home  the 
articles  of  manufacture  they  required.  In  the  wilderness  they 
enjoyed  plenty  and  liberty,  and  with  that  they  should  be 
content. 

With  equal  effect  Birkbeck  pointed  out  the  loss  of  social 
solidarity  that  would  result  if  the  slaveholder  came  in.  "  The 
planters  are  great  men,  and  will  ride  about,  mighty  grand,  with 
their  umbrellas  over  their  heads,  when  I  and  my  boys  are 
working,  perhaps  bare-headed,  in  the  hot  sun.  Neighbors 
indeed!  they  would  have  all  their  own  way,  and  rule  over  us 
like  little  kings:  .  .  .  but  if  we  lacked  to  raise  a  building — or 
a  dollar  —  the  d — 1  a  bit  would  they  help  us."  31  Freemen 
came  from  slave  states  because  "  it  is  impossible  for  free  men 
to  thrive  by  honest  labor  among  slaveholders  and  slaves." 
The  planter  would  not  tax  himself  for  free  schools;  but  the 
farmer  must  suffer  from  the  pilfering  of  negroes  and  ride 
patrol  all  night  while  his  women  shared  with  the  planter's  wife 
the  dread  of  a  slave  insurrection.  In  a  word  Birkbeck  suc- 
ceeded in  fitting  the  argument  against  slavery  squarely  to  Illi- 
nois conditions. 

In  the  election  the  proslavery  men  were  routed.  The  vote 
was  4,972  for  a  convention  and  6,640  against  it.  The  con- 
ventionists  polled  their  majorities  in  the  counties  of  the  south. 
Gallatin  gave  them  82  per  cent,  Pope,  69,  Alexander,  60, 
Jackson,  66,  Hamilton,  67,  Jefferson,  70,  Franklin,  60.  They 
carried  Wayne  with  63  per  cent  of  the  votes,  and  Randolph 
with  55  per  cent.  On  the  other  hand  they  either  lost  or  won 
by  insignificant  margins  in  such  counties  as  Union,  Johnson,  and 
White  of  the  south,  while  the  north  central  counties  were  decid- 
edly against  them  by  fair  majorities  and  the  northern  counties 
by  overwhelming  ones.  In  Pike  the  anti-conventionists  got 
90  per  cent,  in  Fulton,  92,  in  Morgan,  91,  in  Sangamon,  83, 
in  Clark,  79,  in  Edgar,  99.  In  the  group  of  eleven  counties 
bordered  on  the  north  by  St.  Clair,  Washington,  Marion, 
Wayne,  and  White,  casting  3,788  votes,  62  per  cent  of  the 

31  Edwardsville  Spectator,  November  i,  1823. 


90  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

vote  was  for  slavery.  In  the  nineteen  counties  to  the  north  of 
this,  out  of  7,814  votes  cast  only  33  per  cent  was  for  slavery, 
and  these  figures  are  increased  by  the  5 1  per  cent  and  45  per 
cent  cast  in  Fayette  and  Montgomery  respectively. 

It  is  unlikely  that  the  two  factions32  that  divided  state 
politics  were  definitely  aligned  in  the  contest.  The  leaders  of 
the  anti-Edwards  faction  were  actively  for  the  convention.  On 
the  other  side  Cook  was  definitely  aligned  against  it  though  he 
took  no  very  active  part  in  opposition,  and  Edwards,  while 
remaining  publicly  noncommittal,  privately  confided  to  a  few 
friends  his  opposition  to  the  measure.  Yet  many  loyal  lieu- 
tenants of  Edwards  such  as  Henry  Eddy  and  Leonard  White 
were  active  conventionists.  In  view  of  the  rapid  changes  of 
affiliation  and  the  lack  of  data  as  to  the  factional  alignments 
at  different  times  it  is  impossible  to  say  definitely  how  many  of 
the  conventionists  or  anti-conventionists  were  at  the  time  active 
in  either  faction.  After  the  election  many  anti-conventionists 
were  found  in  Edwards  ranks  but  many  conventionists  as  well. 
As  Peck  remarked,  after  the  election  the  question  of  the  intro- 
duction of  slavery  in  Illinois  was  at  an  end  politically,  though 
Edwards  was  not  above  trying  to  revive  it  for  political  effect. 
Future  political  movements  and  alliances  had  no  relation  to 
the  position  of  parties  in  the  convention  struggle. 

The  two  men  who  had  been  most  closely  associated  in  the 
struggle,  Coles  and  Birkbeck,  made  no  political  advantage  out 
of  the  triumph  of  their  cause.  Coles  as  a  candidate  for  the 
senatorship  in  1824  joined  the  coalition  against  Edwards  only 
to  see  the  prize  fall  to  Elias  Kent  Kane,  a  proslavery  man. 
Several  of  Coles'  nominations  to  office  were  rejected  by  the 
senate,  notably  that  of  Birkbeck  to  be  secretary  of  state,  an 
office  he  had  held  in  the  interim.  In  his  messages  of  1824  and 
1826  Coles  reiterated  his  suggestion  that  the  assembly  provide 
by  law  for  the  abrogation  of  the  remnants  of  slavery  in  the 
state  and  the  repeal  of  the  black  code  and  adopt  effective  meas- 
ures against  kidnapping;  but  in  spite  of  the  antislavery  attitude 

32  For  discussion  of  these  two  political  factions  see  below,  p.  92  ff. 


THE   CONVENTION   STRUGGLE          91 

of  the  state  long  years  passed  before  this  was  done.  Coles' 
work  in  Illinois  was  finished.  He  wished  to  run  for  congress 
in  1828  and  did  run  in  1830;  but  both  times  his  ambition  was 
disappointed.  He  left  the  state  and  its  politics  for  a  long, 
happy,  and  apparently  uneventful  life  at  Philadelphia. 

The  end  of  Birkbeck's  career  was  a  tragedy.  The  country 
of  the  Illinois  had  but  poorly  recompensed  his  high  hopes.  It 
had  brought  him  financial  losses,  galling  criticism,  disappoint- 
ment in  love,  and  estrangement  from  his  friends.  He  had 
performed  with  high  efficiency  the  duties  of  secretary  of  state, 
but  the  enemies  he  had  made  by  his  war  on  slavery  sought  to 
wound  him  so  far  as  they  could  by  rejecting  his  nomination  for 
the  office.  A  few  months  later  while  swimming  his  horse  over 
a  swollen  creek  he  was  swept  away  to  his  death.  Long  since 
those  most  directly  interested  in  preserving  his  memory  have 
left  the  state,  and  his  name  has  been  practically  forgotten  in 
the  commonwealth  he  served  so  well. 


V.     THE  WAR  ON  NINIAN  EDWARDS 

HE  question  of  slavery  apart,  Illinois  politics  for  the  first 
JL  twelve  years  of  statehood  consisted  of  a  struggle  between 
personal  factions.  Till  the  rise  of  Jacksonian  democracy 
national  parties  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word  were  nonexist- 
ent; and  in  Illinois  the  divisions  and  disputes  over  the  presi- 
dential aspirations  of  Crawford,  Adams,  Clay,  Calhoun,  and 
Jackson  were  secondary  in  interest  to  the  contests  between  the 
state  factions  and  at  best  served  only  to  intensify  their  strife 
or  to  create  cross  divisional  lines.  At  first  sight  political  con- 
tests within  the  state  are  a  maze  of  personal  and  factional 
rivalries.  The  clue  lies  in  the  existence  of  two  factions,  the 
Edwards  and  anti-Edwards,  each  a  rather  loose  group  of 
personal  followings,  in  which  disaftections,  mutinies,  and 
changes  of  side  occurred  with  confusing  rapidity. 

In  the  case  of  the  Edwards  faction  at  least  the  bond  of 
union  was  partly  common  business  interests.  During  the  con- 
stitutional convention  in  1818  the  attempts  of  Nathaniel  Pope, 
Benjamin  Stephenson,  and  others  of  the  Edwards  faction  to 
secure  the  location  of  the  state  capital  on  one  of  their  town 
sites  reacted  against  Governor  Ninian  Edwards  when  he  was 
candidate  for  the  senate  in  I8I9.1  Stephenson,  Edwards,  and 
Theophilus  W.  Smith  in  1820  were  concerned  in  promoting  an 
addition  to  Edwardsville.  Both  Stephenson  and  Edwards, 
along  with  William  Kinney,  and  with  Richard  M.  and  James 
Johnson  of  Kentucky  were  interested  in  the  Bank  of  Edwards- 
ville. Thomas  Hart  Benton  bitterly  attacked  the  institution  in 
the  St.  Louis  newspapers;  and,  when  in  1822  he  assailed  the 
national  policy  of  leasing  the  lead  mines  to  the  Johnsons  and 
others,  it  was  Edwards  who  came  to  their  support.  The  con- 

1  Buck,  Illinois  in  1818,  p.  286-292. 

92 


WAR   ON   NINIAN  EDWARDS  93 

duct  of  the  Bank  of  Missouri  toward  the  banks  of  Edwards- 
ville  and  Shawneetown  created  a  common  bond  of  financial 
interest  between  Edwards  and  John  Marshall  and  John  Cald- 
well  of  the  Shawneetown  bank;  and  both  men  politically  were 
his  friends  and  supporters.2 

The  central  figure  in  this  party  was  the  stately  Ninian 
Edwards,  already  a  politician  of  note  in  Kentucky  when  in 
1809  he  was  appointed  governor  of  Illinois  territory.  Kindly, 
charitable,  generous,  and  at  the  same  time  pompous,  overbear- 
ing, and  affected,  he  had  many  warm  friends,  many  enemies 
too,  and  perhaps  many  associates  who  humored  his  foibles 
so  long  as  doing  so  would  promote  their  own  advantage.  The 
quality  of  mental  balance  was  almost  completely  lacking  in, 
Edwards.  By  turns  he  was  bold  and  overcautious,  headstrong 
and  vacillating,  now  plunging  rashly  into  an  enterprise  such  as 
the  attack  on  Crawford,  of  which  he  had  not  counted  the  cost, 
now  hestitating  between  two  courses  and  striving  to  follow  both 
when  an  irrevocable  decision  between  them  had  to  be  made. 
A  mental  shiftiness  sometimes  led  him  into  equivocal  positions 
which  he  could  justify  only  by  elaborate  explanations.  Notably 
in  the  Crawford  imbroglio  by  piling  up  card  houses  of  circum- 
stantial evidence  to  prove  his  innocence  of  charges  which  he 
should  have  been  able  to  ignore  or  to  deny  flatly,  he  frittered 
away  his  fair  fame.  His  contemporaries,  like  students  in  these 
latter  days,  doubtless  grew  weary  of  reiterations  and  of  elab- 
orate proofs  of  his  abilities  and  integrity.  Finally,  trying  to 
hit  on  a  course  that  would  throw  away  none  of  his  claims  on 
the  various  presidential  candidates,  he  was  swept  away  in  the 
flood  of  intolerant  Jacksonism. 

Aligned  with  the  Edwards  faction  were  Nathaniel  Pope, 
formerly  delegate  in  congress  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  state 
period  a  federal  judge,  Daniel  Pope  Cook,  his  nephew,  in  a 
year  or  two  to  become  Edwards'  son-in-law,  Thomas  C. 
Browne,  a  justice  of  the  state  supreme  court,  and  Leonard 

~  Annals  of  Congress,  17  congress,  i  session,  465-470;  Washburne,  Edwards 
Papers,  156,  158. 


94  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

White  of  Gallatin  county.  Of  the  lesser  men  William  Kinney, 
Theophilus  W.  Smith,  and  E.  J.  West  were  soon  to  desert 
the  faction  and  ultimately  to  become  leaders  of  the  opposi- 
tion. 

Comparatively  little  of  the  methods  and  purposes  of  the 
opposition  party  is  known  except  from  its  opponents.  Of  its 
leaders,  Jesse  B.  Thomas  had  begun  his  career  with  the  bargain 
of  the  Illinois  country  delegates  that  had  led  to  the  division  of 
Indiana  territory.  John  McLean  from  the  eastern  side  of  the 
state  was  a  man  of  considerable  ability  but  with  an  irascible 
temper  which  led  him  to  bitter  and  vindictive  outbursts  against 
enemies  or  false  friends.  Joseph  B.  Phillips,  till  his  removal 
from  the  state  after  his  defeat  for  governor,  was  another 
member  of  the  party;  Shadrach  Bond,  a  man  of  no  great  spirit 
or  ability,  was  soon  by  Kane's  influence  drawn  from  a  position 
of  neutrality  into  the  faction.3 

Elias  Kent  Kane,  who  was  apparently  till  his  death  in 
December,  1835,  the  chief  of  the  faction  whenever  he  chose 
to  exert  his  influence,  is  the  enigma  of  early  Illinois  politics. 
In  the  case  of  every  other  man  of  prominence,  the  man,  his 
friends,  or  his  enemies  have  left  materials  for  a  sketch  or  a 
caricature  of  him.  Kane  is  a  man  in  a  mask.  Letters  to  and 
from  him,  even  from  father  and  friends,  newspaper  puffs,  the 
epithets  of  enemies,  a  school  boy's  letter  about  him,  survive; 
but  among  them  can  be  found  not  one  human  touch,  not  one 
phrase  that  can  endow  the  man  with  a  living  personality.  No 
anecdotes  that  would  characterize  him  have  survived.  Cata- 
logs of  his  political  abilities,  virtues,  and  vices  can  be  found; 
again  and  again  is  seen  his  influence  at  work;  but  from  all  these 
can  be  drawn  no  picture  of  Kane  himself.  It  is  known  that  he 
was  of  a  decayed  aristocratic  New  York  family,  a  graduate 
of  Yale  who  came  to  Illinois  to  seek  his  fortune.  Yet  strangely 
he  seems  to  have  taken  no  interest  in  the  great  enterprise  that 
in  the  days  of  his  highest  power  Yale  men  undertook  at  Illinois 
College.  The  distinctive  gift  of  his  alma  mater  to  her  sons 

3  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  150. 


[From  original  owned  by  Illinois  State  Historical  Library] 


WAR    ON    NINIAN   EDWARDS  95 

has  sometimes  been  said  to  be  a  certain  reserve  and  convention 
of  manner;  and  at  the  last  one  is  compelled  to  dismiss  Kane 
as  so  far  typically  a  Yale  man. 

At  the  time  of  the  institution  of  state  government  the  two 
factions  appear  to  have  reached  a  compromise  as  to  the  dispo- 
sition of  offices.  Shadrach  Bond,  who  had  belonged  to  neither 
faction,  was  elected  governor  without  opposition;  both  sides 
had  been  anxious  that  he  should  withdraw  from  the  congres- 
sional race  in  which  McLean  beat  Cook  by  fourteen  votes. 
In  the  legislature,  Cook  was  elected  attorney-general,  and 
Thomas  C.  Browne  and  Joseph  B.  Phillips,  judges  of  the  su- 
preme court  by  decisive  majorities.  Ninian  Edwards  was 
similarly  elected  to  one  senatorship,  receiving  thirty-two  votes 
out  of  forty  cast.  Jesse  B.  Thomas  of  the  opposite  faction  was 
elected  to  the  other  seat  on  the  fourth  ballot,  by  a  majority  of 
three  over  Leonard  White,  an  Edwards  man.  In  this  election 
a  bargain  apparently  had  failed,  and  in  the  congressional  elec- 
tion none  can  have  existed.  The  fact,  however,  that  Edwards, 
who  drew  the  short  term  expiring  in  1819,  hesitated  about 
announcing  his  candidacy  for  reelection  led  to  an  attempt  to 
defeat  him  by  arousing  jealousy  among  eastern  Illinois  mem- 
bers on  the  score  that  both  senators  were  from  the  western  part 
of  the  state.  He  was  finally  elected  by  a  vote  of  twenty-three 
to  nineteen.4 

Edwards  and  Thomas  carried  their  factional  rivalries  to 
the  senate.  They  were  soon  at  outs  on  the  question  of  federal 
appointments  in  the  state.  Edwards,  who  fared  the  worse 
in  the  contest  for  registerships  and  receiverships,  rather  injured 
his  standing  by  the  energy  of  his  protests.  Jealous  of  interfer- 
ence with  his  power  of  appointment,  President  Monroe  refused 
to  entertain  Edwards'  proposal  that  he  and  Thomas  be  per- 
mitted each  to  select  two  of  four  officers  for  the  new  land  offices. 
The  president  and  the  more  staid  part  of  official  Washington 
appear  to  have  been  surprised  and  puzzled  at  the  bitterness  of 

*  Senate  Journal,  1818,  i  session,  16,  28;  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  149- 
150,  154. 


96  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  contest  between  the  two  factions.6  ;<  The  local  parties,  in 
which  you  appear  to  have  lived,"  wrote  William  Wirt  to 
Edwards,  "have  kept  you  in  a  constant  state  of  partisan  war- 
fare—  which,  of  all  conditions  of  human  life,  is  best  calculated 
to  sharpen  the  observation  of  character,  to  whet  the  sagacity 
in  the  detection  of  hostile  movements,  even  at  a  distance,  and 
to  fructify  the  invention  in  the  adoption  of  countervailing 
manoeuvres.  But  when  a  man  rises,  as  you  have  risen,  above 
the  horizon  of  this  petty  warfare,  he  ought  to  forget  all  local 
feuds.  .  .  ."6  Such  was  the  counsel  of  a  friend  who  had 
attained  a  mental  poise  such  as  Edwards  never  achieved.  The 
advice  was  calculated  to  conditions  of  the  political  age  that 
was  passing  rather  than  of  that  which  was  coming  in;  but 
Edwards  might  well  have  taken  it  to  heart. 

The  rivalry  between  Edwards  and  Thomas  was  soon  inten- 
sified by  their  affiliations  in  the  presidential  conflict.  Thomas 
together  with  Thomas  Hart  Benton,  whom  Edwards  had 
sought  to  defeat  for  the  Missouri  senatorship  by  running 
Cook's  brother  against  him,  espoused  the  cause  of  William  H. 
Crawford.  Daniel  Pope  Cook,  who,  as  has  been  seen,  had  in 
1819  and  1820  been  elected  to  congress  over  the  anti-Edwards 
leaders,  McLean  and  Kane,  apparently  was  inclined  to  favor 
Adams.  Edwards  was  at  first  inclined  in  the  same  direction, 
but  by  his  own  account  seeing  that  Calhoun  had  a  better  chance 
against  Crawford,  he  transferred  his  allegiance  to  the  war 
department.7  Soon  he  and  Cook  were  carrying  on  a  dangerous 
and  daring  warfare  against  the  redoubtable  Crawford. 

In  the  session  of  congress  of  1821-1822  Cook  began  a 
vigorous  attack  on  Crawford,  the  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
for  appointing  Jesse  B.  Thomas  to  the  lucrative  task  of  exam- 
ining western  land  offices.  He  pursued  this  in  the  house  with 
a  persistency  that  probably  detracted  from  its  effect,  persevering 
even  after  a  committee  report  exonerated  Thomas  and  Craw- 

5  Crawford  to  Edwards,  January   10,   1821,  in   Chicago  Historical   Society 
manuscripts;  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  167,  181,  185. 
"Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  188-189. 
7  Adams,  Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  5:  304,  525. 


WAR    ON    NINIAN   EDWARDS  97 

ford  of  unconstitutional  or  improper  conduct8  The  attack 
was  doubtless  for  the  moment  against  Thomas  rather  than 
Crawford.  The  Calhoun  leaders  were  anxious  to  see  Thomas 
as  a  Crawford  partisan  defeated  for  reelection  to  the  senate; 
and  Edwards  was  urged  directly  by  Calhoun  to  secure  his 
defeat  even  by  a  bargain.  "The  reelection  of  Thomas,"  he 
wrote,  "  would  have  a  very  bad  effect.  You  must  run  but  one, 
and  if  necessary  you  ought  to  come  to  an  understanding."9 
The  Illinois  papers  of  the  Edwards  faction  attacked  Thomas 
during  the  course  of  1822,  accusing  him  of  trying  to  buy  his 
election  by  promises  of  offices  and  charging  that  he  was  in 
opposition  to  Monroe  and  in  alliance  with  Crawford. 

The  Edwards  faction  was  not  under  strict  enough  disci- 
pline to  agree  on  any  one  candidate  to  oppose  Thomas.  Pope, 
perhaps  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  year,  had  endeavored  to 
pledge  the  Edwards  support  to  John  Reynolds.  Edwards  was 
incensed  that  this  should  have  been  done  without  his  knowledge ; 
very  likely  at  this  time  he  had  none  too  good  an  opinion  of 
Reynolds'  ability  and  integrity;  and  he  was  piqued  at  being 
pledged  without  his  knowledge  to  support  another  Edwards' 
faction  aspirant  for  the  senatorship  whom  Pope  proposed  to 
get  out  of  the  way  by  that  means.  At  the  meeting  of  the 
assembly,  Lockwood,  White,  and  John  Reynolds  were  all  can- 
didates on  the  Edwards  side.10  Reynolds  tried  to  postpone 
the  election  in  the  hope  that  the  charges  brought  against 
Thomas  might  gain  weight  or  that  the  various  persons  to 
whom  he  was  reported  to  have  promised  the  same  offices  might 
grow  suspicious.  He  also  appealed  to  Edwards  for  unity  in 
the  faction  and  for  efficient  use  of  the  patronage  to  fix  wavering 
supporters,  but  with  no  result.  Thomas,  Kane,  Bond,  Joseph 
Kitchell,  and  McLean  were  united;  and  January  9,  1823, 

8  Annals  of  Congress,  17  congress,  i  session,  635-637,  829-831,  876,  897-898, 
912-916;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  May  4,  1822;  Ed<wards<ville  Spectator,  February 
5,  1822. 

9  Edwards,  History  of  Illinois,  493. 

10  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  192-203.  This  is  a  draft  without  an  address. 
Washburne  believed  it  was  written  to  Bond,  but  a  careful  study  of  its  contents 
leaves  no  doubt  that  it  was  to  Pope. 


98  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

Thomas  was  reflected,  receiving  a  majority  of  six  over  Reyn- 
olds, White,  and  Lockwood. 

Meanwhile,  Edwards  and  Cook  had  become  directly  in- 
volved in  a  contest  with  the  secretary  of  the  treasury.  Craw- 
ford's financial  policy  toward  the  western  states  has  been  con- 
sidered in  a  preceding  chapter.11  Here  it  may  be  recalled  that 
he  had  undertaken  to  use  the  unstable  banks  of  the  west  in  col- 
lecting the  revenue  from  the  public  lands  in  the  more  than 
unstable  bank  note  currencies  of  that  region.  Statesmanlike 
as  the  measure  was,  it  had  resulted  in  losses  to  the  govern- 
ment; and  no  doubt  a  politician  so  active  as  Crawford  had  not 
failed,  where  he  could,  to  advance  his  political  fortunes  by 
his  financial  favors.  On  specific  points  this  policy  was  attacked 
by  Edwards  and  Cook,  the  latter  securing  in  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives repeated  calls  on  Crawford  for  the  production  of 
great  masses  of  correspondence  with  agent  banks.  Edwards, 
by  the  use  he  endeavored  to  make  of  this  material  against 
Crawford,  involved  himself  in  what  became  known  as  the 
A.  B.  plot. 

The  A.  B.  plot  had  developed  in  1823,  when  there  appeared 
in  the  Republican,  the  Calhoun  organ  at  Washington,  a  series 
of  articles  under  the  signature  A.  B.  which  not  only  attacked 
Crawford  for  malfeasance  in  his  official  relations  with  banks 
but  further  insinuated  that,  under  a  call  made  by  the  house  the 
year  before  for  correspondence  relating  to  banks,  certain  letters 
had  been  withheld  and  crucial  parts  of  another  marked  for 
omission  when  the  correspondence  should  be  printed.  To 
weigh  the  testimony  fully  would  require  a  chapter  by  itself; 
here  it  may  be  said  that  at  best  the  evidence  was  far  from  prov- 
ing conclusively  bad  faith  on  the  part  of  anyone  concerned  and 
that  the  details  alleged  to  have  been  suppressed  were  of  no 
great  importance.  John  Quincy  Adams,  by  no  means  likely 
to  be  prejudiced  in  favor  of  Crawford,  believed  the  design 
of  the  A.  B.  letters  was  to  remove  Joseph  Gales  and  William  W. 
Seaton,  Crawford  supporters,  from  their  post  of  public  print- 

11  See  above,  p.  53  ff. 


WAR    ON    NINIAN   EDWARDS  99 

ers.12  An  investigation,  perhaps  of  a  somewhat  partisan 
cast,  finally  exonerated  all  accused  in  the  A.  B.  letters.  It  was 
generally  understood  that  Edwards  was  the  author  of  the 
letters;  and  the  fact  that  he  had  used  information  obtained  in 
a  semiofficial  capacity  as  a  basis  for  anonymous  attacks  on 
his  political  enemies  seriously  impaired  his  prestige  with  men 
like  Adams  and  Monroe  and  was  sedulously  used  against  him 
by  the  partisans  of  Crawford. 

Edwards'  senatorial  career  indeed  had  not  been  especially 
gratifying  or  profitable  to  him.  His  financial  interests  had 
suffered  by  his  absence  from  Illinois.  His  reputation  for  so- 
briety of  judgment  had  been  impaired  not  only  by  his  supposed 
leadership  in  the  A.  B.  plot,  but  possibly  also  by  an  occasional 
vehemence  such  as  marked  his  attempt  in  1820  to  amend  the 
land  bill  in  the  senate,  an  attempt  which  some  senators  con- 
sidered indecorous.  He  had  seen  Thomas  outstrip  him  in  the 
race  for  preferment  when  in  1820  the  latter  received  an 
appointment  on  the  senate  committee  on  the  public  lands.  Per- 
haps on  account  of  his  ill  health  he  was  not  active  in  the  senate 
during  the  1822-1823  session,  frequently  failing  to  answer  to 
his  name  and  presenting  almost  no  memorials  and  petitions; 
in  this  session  he  was  on  no  standing  committee.  During  his 
term  he  had  repeatedly  considered  resigning,  for  the  first  time 
in  1819,  then  in  1821  when  in  a  huff  at  his  discomfiture  over 
appointments,  again  in  1822  when  he  resented  Pope's  attempts 
to  dissuade  him  from  resignation,  and  finally  in  1823  when 
Calhoun  entreated  him  to  remain.13  Early  in  1824,  however, 
he  sought  from  Monroe  the  nomination  as  minister  to  Mexico. 
Monroe  was  at  first  inclined  to  refuse  to  consider  him  because 
of  the  A.  B.  affair.  Cook  was  earnest  in  his  efforts  with  Adams 
in  behalf  of  his  father-in-law,  and  Edwards  obtained  the  nomi- 
nation. For  some  time  it  seemed  that  the  senate  might  reject 
it  for  the  same  reasons  that  had  influenced  Monroe  in  his 


12  Adams,  Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  6:227-228,  296-297,  370-372. 
is  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  202-203;  Edwards,  History  of  Illinois,  496; 
Annals  of  Congress,  16  congress,  i  session,  9,  26. 


ioo  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

opposition,  but  finally  it  confirmed  the  appointment.  Edwards, 
however,  was  destined  never  to  set  out  on  the  mission.  A  new 
outbreak  of  his  feud  with  Crawford  brought  both  men  to  a 
death  grapple. 

Edwards  in  his  arraignment  of  Crawford  for  depositing 
the  public  money  in  banks  where  it  proved  a  total  loss  had  had 
to  encounter  the  uncomfortable  fact  that  he  himself  had  been 
instrumental  in  securing  a  deposit  for  one  of  the  defaulting 
institutions,  the  Bank  of  Edwardsville.  He  had  asserted,  how- 
ever, that  in  the  fall  of  1819  he  had  disclaimed  further  respon- 
sibility for  the  bank  in  a  newspaper  publication,  a  copy  of  which 
he  had  sent  to  Crawford,  and  that  further  he  had  induced  Ben- 
jamin Stephenson,  in  his  capacity  as  receiver  at  Edwardsville, 
to  write  Crawford  suggesting  that  for  the  present  he  had  better 
not  deposit  further  with  himself  as  bank  president.  So  Edwards 
had  testified  before  a  house  committee  in  February  of  1823. 
In  view  of  the  attacks  previously  made  on  him,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  Crawford,  in  sending  to  congress  a  report  contain- 
ing a  last  installment  of  the  correspondence  demanded  by  the 
various  calls,  should  have  concluded  with  the  statement  that  no 
such  letter  as  Edwards  described  was  to  be  found  in  the 
treasury  files. 

Edwards,  on  the  point  of  departure  from  Washington  when 
this  report  appeared,  regarded  it  as  an  attempt  to  ruin  his 
good  name.  Continuing  on  his  journey  toward  Illinois,  he  sent 
to  the  house  of  representatives  a  communication  with  accom- 
panying documents,  recapitulating  several  of  his  former  charges 
against  Crawford  and  reiterating  his  statement  as  to  the  exist- 
ence of  the  letter.  At  the  Edwardsville  land  office  he  procured 
a  copy  of  the  rough  draft  of  the  letter  in  question  and  of  another 
which  referred  to  it.  The  house  of  representatives  promptly 
recalled  him  to  testify  in  an  investigation.  It  seemed  at  the 
time  that  the  presidential  race  was  likely  to  be  run  with  Craw- 
ford against  the  field ;  and  his  partisans  realizing  that  Edwards' 
charges  against  him,  if  established,  would  ruin  his  chances, 
rallied  around  him.  Edwards'  old  associates,  on  the  other 


WAR    ON    NINIAN   EDWARDS  101 

hand,  hesitated  to  imperil  themselves  by  defending  him  too 
openly;  and  he  was  left  to  fight  almost  single-handed  against 
his  enemies. 

In  this  situation  Edwards  found  himself  committed  to 
charges  which  were  not  susceptible  of  plain  demonstration. 
The  death  of  Stephenson  had  left  no  direct  witness  to  the 
writing  of  the  letter  save  Edwards.  The  existence  of  the  draft 
letter  in  the  Edwardsville  oJffice  indorsed  by  Stephenson,  but 
as  it  developed  written  in  Edwards'  own  hand,  was  no  positive 
proof  that  Stephenson  had  actually  sent  a  letter  casting  doubts 
on  the  solvency  of  his  bank,  or  that  Crawford  had  received  it. 
Edwards  tried  to  meet  the  difficulty  by  deducing  from  the  later 
letters  by  Crawford  a  fine-spun  thread  of  proof  that  the  letter 
had  actually  been  received.  Crawford's  counsel  before  the 
committee  were  able  to  advance  an  interpretation  at  least  as 
plausible  in  favor  of  their  client;  what  was  more  important,  by 
a  comparison  of  dates  and  of  the  time  taken  by  the  mails  they 
showed  that  it  was  impossible  that  the  letter  could  have  been 
taken  into  account  in  a  letter  which  Edwards  argued  was  a  fur- 
tive answer  to  it.  Edwards  was  reduced  to  the  position  of 
impeaching  Crawford's  veracity  on  his  own  word,  plus  a  tenu- 
ous line  of  circumstantial  evidence. 

On  the  other  specifications  of  his  charge  Edwards  was 
equally  unfortunate.  In  general  they  depended  for  proof  on 
elaborate  arguments  drawn  from  intricate  bodies  of  evidence, 
the  sifting  of  which  is  wearisome  to  the  scholar  and  inex- 
pressibly dull  to  the  lay  reader.  Edwards'  proofs  were  suf- 
ficient to  convince  Crawford's  enemies  but  not  to  silence  his 
friends.  Further  Crawford's  counsel  by  various  witnesses, 
notably  Senator  James  Noble  of  Indiana,  sought  to  discredit 
Edwards'  veracity  by  proving  that  when  he  feared  that  his 
nomination  would  be  rejected  by  the  senate  he  had  denied  to 
several  persons  the  authorship  of  the  A.  B.  letters.  The  stroke 
from  the  politicians'  point  of  view  was  a  masterly  one.  Instead 
of  being  content  merely  with  turning  aside  Edwards'  charges 
by  controverting  evidence  and  interpretation,  they  impugned 


102  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

the  veracity  of  the  man  on  whose  unsupported  evidence  much 
of  the  charge  was  based. 

In  meeting  this  counter  attack  Edwards'  intellectual  habits 
betrayed  him  into  his  supreme  error.  Instead  of  taking  the 
stand  and  denying  on  his  oath  the  testimony  against  him,  he 
devoted  himself  to  building  up  by  a  long  series  of  witnesses, 
letters,  and  affidavits  a  structure  of  circumstantial  evidence 
designed  to  show  that  it  was  impossible  that  such  conversations 
should  have  taken  place,  but  in  each  instance  falling  a  little 
short  of  demonstration.  The  committee,  though  made  up  in 
Crawford's  interest,  in  exonerating  him  left  a  serious  blemish 
on  Edwards'  reputation. 

It  is  impossible  to  decide  whether  Edwards  or  Crawford 
had  the  major  part  of  truth  on  his  side.  In  view  of  Crawford's 
political  situation  it  is  impossible  to  accept  implicitly  the  con- 
clusion of  a  committee  numbering  several  of  his  friends  and 
allies.  It  is  as  easy  to  explain  the  facts  regarding  Stephenson's 
letters  by  supposing  them  to  have  been  suppressed  in  Craw- 
ford's office  as  to  explain  them  by  supposing  that  Stephenson 
wrote  the  first  letter  to  please  Edwards,  and  the  second  to 
convince  him  the  first  had  been  sent,  and  actually  forwarded 
neither.  It  is  easy  to  believe  that  Crawford  in  his  dealings 
with  banks  had  shown  political  friends  "undue  favors,"  such 
as  Edwards  alleged.  There  are  certain  grave  discrepancies  in 
the  testimony  designed  to  fix  on  Edwards  the  denial  of  the 
A.  B.  letters.  Finally  one  must  remember  that  by  their  enemies 
at  least  many  of  Crawford's  followers  were  accounted  des- 
perate and  unscrupulous  politicians. 

On  the  other  hand  certain  facts  of  Edwards'  conduct  point 
toward  what  was  at  least  a  moral  obliquity  in  his  character. 
Occasionally  he  seemed  to  attempt  a  suppression  of  facts.  The 
affidavit  which  he  secured  to  describe  the  draft  of  Stephenson's 
letter  specifies  that  the  draft  was  indorsed  in  Stephenson's 
hand  but  not  that  it  was  written  in  Edwards'.  In  the  whole 
course  of  his  narratives  Edwards  overemphasized  the  warning 
Crawford  might  have  taken  from  his  publication  and  from 


WAR   ON   NINIAN   EDWARDS  103 

Stephenson's  letter,  for  both  publication  and  letter  were  labori- 
ous in  their  attempts  to  shift  responsibility  without  giving  cause 
for  real  alarm.  Edwards'  conduct  in  the  A.  B.  affair  had  not 
seemed  to  dissentients  or  even  to  friendly  onlookers  overscru- 
pulous on  the  point  of  honor;  further,  several  of  his  attacks 
on  Crawford's  dealing  with  specific  banks  were  trivial  and 
unfair.  To  dismiss  Edwards  with  a  clear  character  and  to  give 
him  the  verdict  against  Crawford  is  impossible. 

Whatever  be  the  conclusion  as  to  Edwards'  deserts  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  for  the  time  being  he  was  brought  to  the 
verge  of  financial  ruin.  He  had  of  course  resigned  his  senator- 
ship  before  accepting  the  Mexican  appointment;  and  his  deten- 
tion to  testify  as  to  his  charges  against  Crawford  compelled 
him  to  resign  that  also.  He  was  obliged  to  refund  the  portion 
of  his  salary  which  had  been  advanced  him;  and  the  sum  he 
had  already  invested  in  his  outfit  proved  almost  a  dead  loss. 
He  was  prepared  to  dispose  of  his  speculative  landholdings  at 
a  heavy  sacrifice,  and  he  even  professed  himself  willing  to 
accept  a  county  clerkship  to  support  his  family.14 

Meanwhile  Cook  had  upheld  the  political  fortunes  of  the 
Edwards  faction  in  Illinois  against  the  ablest  and  most  popu- 
lar leaders  of  the  opposition.  In  1819  and  1822  he  defeated 
McLean;  in  1820,  Kane;  and  in  1824,  Bond;  all  by  decisive 
pluralities.  His  tremendous  personal  popularity  was  the  prin- 
cipal cause  of  his  success.  In  1819  and  1820,  it  was  true,  he 
had  triumphed  on  the  antislavery  principle ;  but  his  opponents 
seemed  able  to  devise  no  issue  that  would  enable  them  to  over- 
come his  popularity.  Charges  that  he  had  been  guilty  of 
improper  use  of  his  frank  and  of  associating  politically  with 
federalists  were  of  no  avail.  In  1822  James  Hall,  under  the 
signature  of  Brutus  attacked  him  in  the  Illinois  Gazette,  accus- 
ing him  of  assailing  Crawford  for  bank  policies  that  had  helped 
the  west  in  its  need,  but  to  no  purpose.  In  1824  the  attempt 
on  the  part  of  Bond's  friends  to  identify  Cook  with  the  anti- 

14  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  225-229,  230-231,  429;  Adams,  Memoirs  of 
John  Quincy  Adams,  6:374-375. 


io4  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

convention  party  led  the  Gazette  to  remark  that  half  the  con- 
ventionists  in  eastern  Illinois  were  for  Cook  and  that  for  Bond 
to  create  a  coalition  between  Cook's  friends  and  the  anti- 
convention  party  was  suicidal.  It  is  much  more  significant  to 
find  attacks  circulating  which  represented  Cook  and  Edwards 
as  members  of  a  reigning  family.15  In  years  to  come  such 
charges  had  their  effect. 

One  issue,  however,  had  been  raised  against  both  Cook 
and  Edwards  as  early  as  1820  and  was  destined  to  annoy  them 
both  so  long  as  they  remained  in  politics.  The  accusation  was 
made  that  from  self-interest  they  had  voted  against  a  reduction 
of  the  price  of  public  land  in  1820.  Edwards  and  Cook  both 
declared  that  they  had  voted  against  the  bill  which  reduced 
the  price  of  public  land  from  $2  to  $1.25  an  acre,  because  it 
also  oppressed  the  west  by  abolishing  the  credit  sales  system. 
Edwards  pointed  to  the  fact  that  in  the  senate  he  had  repeatedly 
endeavored  to  lower  the  price  still  more  and  to  secure  preemp- 
tions to  actual  settlers,  pressing  his  amendments  with  such 
vehemence  that  at  last  he  had  fallen  in  a  swoon  on  the  floor 
of  the  senate.  Edwards  must  have  known  the  futility  of  offer- 
ing for  the  approval  of  eastern  senators  such  radical  price 
amendments  as  he  did;  the  whole  series  that  he  proposed  has 
a  touch  of  buncombe  to  it.  No  doubt  the  reduction  in  price 
operated  disastrously  on  men  like  Cook  and  Edwards  with 
heavy  speculative  holdings,  and  it  was  said  on  fair  authority 
that  Edwards  had  written  to  his  associate  in  speculation  express- 
ing his  fear  lest  the  measure  pass.  Of  a  piece  with  this  charge 
was  one  brought  against  Cook  in  1822  to  the  effect  that  he  had 
opposed  the  creation  of  a  new  land  office  and  of  preemption 
rights  in  the  Sangamon  country  with  a  view  to  the  possibility 
of  his  own  family's  monopolizing  the  land  in  case  it  were 
sold  at  Edwardsville.18  This  charge  was,  however,  effectively 
denied. 

10  Illinois  Gazette,  June  29,  July  6,  1822;  Ediuardsville  Spectator,  July  18, 
1820,  July  27,  1822;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  July  22,  1820,  July  27,  1822;  Kaskas- 
kia  Republican,  April  20,  1824. 

16  Illinois  Gazette,  June  29,  July  27,  August  3,  1822;  Illinois  Intelligencer, 
July  27,  1822;  Edwards,  History  of  Illinois,  510,  517,  518. 


WAR   ON   NINIAN   EDWARDS  105 

Local  issues,  or  local  applications  of  national  issues,  pre- 
dominated in  congressional  elections.  Thus  in  his  address  to 
his  constituents  in  1824,  Cook  found  but  little  room  and  no 
important  place  for  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  the  slave  trade. 
Instead  he  stressed  the  feasibility  of  an  Illinois-Michigan 
canal,  appropriations  for  the  improvement  of  the  Ohio  and 
the  Mississippi,  the  extension  of  the  Cumberland  road,  a  pos- 
sible system  of  national  internal  improvements,  a  more  liberal 
policy  of  relief  to  purchasers  of  public  land  and  finally  and 
most  important  the  tariff.  The  tariff  by  virtue  of  the  home 
market  argument  was  made  an  important  political  issue  in  the 
west  in  the  early  twenties.  Thus  in  1824  Bond's  avowed  policy 
of  encouragement  of  agriculture  was  set  down  in  his  party  as 
opposition  to  protected  manufactures.17  Crawford  was  at- 
tacked in  Illinois  as  hostile  to  internal  improvements  and  pro- 
tection, and  it  is  not  clear  that  as  yet  his  friends  ventured  to 
join  issue  on  the  question.  The  appearance  of  the  tariff  as  a 
sectional  issue  must  be  noted  in  this  connection.  About  1820, 
because  of  its  interest  in  a  protective  tariff,  the  east  was  assailed 
for  hostility  to  the  west.  In  view  of  the  future  trend  of  poli- 
tics toward  a  low  tariff  alliance  between  west  and  south,  it  is 
interesting  to  note  the  declarations  of  southern  members  that 
if  oppressed  by  a  high  tariff  the  south  could  no  longer  afford 
to  furnish  the  principal  market  for  the  livestock  of  the  west. 
As  yet,  however,  in  the  limited  materials  for  Illinois  history 
available,  no  answering  echo  can  be  detected.18 

The  presidential  question  was  before  the  people  of  Illinois 
for  nearly  three  years  before  the  election  of  1824.  For  some 
time,  as  nearly  as  one  can  determine,  predilections  of  individ- 
uals often  expressed  by  Fourth  of  July  toasts  in  favor  of  one 
candidate  or  another  determined  their  respective  allegiances. 
As  the  election  drew  near,  however,  the  field  narrowed.  Cal- 

17  Illinois  Gazette,  April  24,  July  17,  1824.  Cook  on  the  tariff  of  1824  voted 
generally  for  protection,  dnnals  of  Congress,  18  congress,  i  session,  1545,  2236, 
2289-2294,  2310-2316,  2327-2330,  2337,  2338,  2627-2629. 

IK  Illinois  Gazette,  June  3,  1820;  Annals  of  Congress,  18  congress,  i  session, 
1677. 


io6  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

houn  withdrew  from  the  race.  Clay  and  Crawford,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  factional  considerations  would  suggest  Craw- 
ford's support  by  the  anti-Edwards  men,  were  believed  to  have 
little  strength  in  one  or  another  of  the  three  electoral  districts 
in  which  the  state  was  divided.  Later  it  was  said  that  Kinney, 
Kane,  McLean,  and  others  of  the  anti-Edwards  faction  had 
favored  Crawford.  Accordingly  the  presidential  election, 
though  attracting  fewer  voters  than  the  congressional  election, 
became  complicated  by  coalition  candidates,  trades,  and  rumors 
of  trades. 

In  the  third  district,  comprising  southwestern  Illinois,  noth- 
ing remarkable  occurred.  In  the  first  district  a  delegate 
convention  nominated  James  Turney  as  a  candidate  for  elector 
pledged  to  vote  for  either  Jackson  or  Clay  according  to  the 
turn  of  events.  The  Intelligencer,  which  favored  Clay,  warned 
his  supporters  not  to  be  deceived  as  Clay  actually  was  stronger 
than  Jackson  or  Crawford,  whom  it  regarded  as  the  probable 
beneficiary  of  the  movement.  Finally  Jackson,  Adams,  Clay, 
and  Crawford  electors  were  all  run.19 

In  the  second  district  a  different  set  of  problems  presented 
themselves.  The  chief  of  them  was  the  danger  lest  the  Jackson 
vote  be  split  among  several  electors  and  an  Adams  man  be 
chosen.  Henry  Eddy  was  nominated  as  Jackson  elector  by  a 
public  meeting  which  his  enemies  stigmatized  as  a  caucus.  This 
and  the  statement  that  Eddy  secretly  favored  Adams  led 
Joseph  M.  Street  to  offer  himself  as  elector  pledged  to  vote 
for  Jackson  for  president  and  some  republican  for  vice 
president.  The  suspicion  was  openly  expressed  that  he  was  a 
stalking  horse  to  divide  the  Jackson  vote  and  secure  the  election 
of  a  nominal  Clay  elector  who  would  vote  for  Crawford.  Both 
Jackson  and  Adams  men  denounced  this  scheme;  and  in  parody 
of  Street,  an  Adams  man,  A.  G.  S.  Wight,  offered  himself  as 
elector  for  "  Crawford  for  President,  and  Joseph  M.  Street, 
or  some  well  known  Republican  for  Vice  President."20 

19  Illinois  Intelligencer,  September  24,  October  22,  1824. 
ao  Illinois  Gazette,  October  16,  1824. 


WAR   ON   NINIAN  EDWARDS  107 

In  view  of  the  interpretations  later  put  upon  Cook's  pledge 
to  vote  in  the  house  for  the  man  who  had  a  majority  of  the 
vote  in  Illinois  it  is  important  to  note  the  results.  An  Adams 
elector  was  chosen  in  the  first  district,  and  Jackson  electors  in 
the  other  two.  In  no  case  had  the  presence  of  two  electors 
for  the  same  candidate  caused  a  serious  split  in  the  vote.  In 
the  state  at  large  Adams  had  1,542  votes;  Jackson,  1,272; 
Clay,  1,047;  and  Crawford,  219.  This  estimate,  however, 
does  not  include  629  votes  cast  in  the  first  district  for  Turney, 
the  Jackson  and  Clay  elector.  His  vote  given  to  either  Jackson 
or  Clay  would  have  given  either  a  plurality  over  Adams.  On 
the  other  hand  the  Edwardsmlle  Spectator  in  its  abstract  of 
the  votes  lists  Turney's  under  "  Crawford,"  and  this  undoubt- 
edly represents  the  source  of  a  portion  of  the  vote.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  Cook  apparently  considered  that  he  had  received 
no  popular  mandate  and  was  at  liberty  to  follow  his  personal 
inclinations  which  led  him  in  the  house  of  representatives  to 
cast  the  vote  of  Illinois  for  Adams. 

Six  months  later,  and  almost  a  year  before  the  congressional 
election  of  1826,  Joseph  Duncan  offered  himself  as  a  rival  can- 
didate to  Cook.  Duncan  had  played  a  minor  part  in  state  poli- 
tics for  several  years,  serving  as  a  senator  in  the  legislature 
of  1824-1826;  he  can  scarcely  be  classed  with  anti-Edwards 
faction.  Intellectually  he  was  by  no  means  the  peer  of  Cook, 
nor  did  his  followers  claim  it;  and  it  is  not  surprising  that 
Cook  and  his  friends  hardly  took  his  candidacy  seriously. 
Duncan,  however,  had  a  fair  military  record.  As  a  boy  of 
seventeen  serving  as  ensign  it  had  fallen  to  him  to  be  the  first 
to  give  his  vote  in  council  of  war  for  the  defense  of  Fort 
Stephenson,  one  of  the  military  successes  of  the  War  of  1812, 
whose  memory  was  still  green  in  the  west.  His  military  service 
and  the  fact  that  he  was  a  farmer  were  made  to  contrast  favor- 
ably with  Cook's  long  career  in  public  office;  he  had  the  hearty 
support  of  the  anti-Edwards  faction;  and  to  improve  his 
position,  immediately  after  the  adjournment  of  the  legislature 
in  1826,  he  began  a  thorough  canvass  of  the  state. 


108  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

It  soon  became  apparent  that  the  campaign  against  Cook 
was  to  be  carried  on  by  negation  rather  than  assertion.  Mut- 
terings  of  discontent  with  his  vote  for  Adams  had  appeared 
a  full  year  before  Duncan  was  held  up  to  the  people  as 
"  a  citizen  who  has  been  weighed  in  the  balance  and  not  found 
wanting."  Cook's  friends  soon  concluded  that  this  vote  was 
a  vulnerable  point  which  must  be  defended.  Sometimes  they 
endeavored  to  explain  Cook's  conduct  as  according  with  his 
pledges.  Sometimes  they  appealed  to  the  voters  to  remember 
that  Cook  had  dLfered  with  them  but  this  once  in  six  years. 
As  a  motive  to  forgiveness  of  this  offense,  if  offense  it  were, 
they  pleaded  the  influential  position  Cook  had  attained  in 
congress  and  the  great  services  that  in  virtue  of  it  he  had  ren- 
dered and  could  still  render  to  his  constituents,  notably  on 
behalf  of  the  canal.  , 

A  second  vulnerable  point  in  Cook's  position  was  reached 
by  the  cry  that  the  Edwards-Cook  connection  formed  a  reigning 
family.  '  The  public  land  vote  of  1820  was  brought  out  for  use 
against  both  Cook  and  his  father-in-law.  To  this  charge 
Cook's  supporters  replied  by  attempting  to  demonstrate  in  the 
family  relations  of  James  M.  and  Joseph  Duncan,  their  uncle 
R.  K.  McLaughlin,  and  David  Blackwell  a  family  dynasty 
similar  to  the  Cook-Edwards-Pope  alliance ;  but  the  attack  was 
hardly  as  successful  as  that  of  their  opponents,  who  could  point 
to  the  fact  as  a  graphic  demonstration  of  their  charge  that 
while  Cook  was  running  for  congress,  Edwards  was  running 
for  governor.21 

Edwards  had  embarked  on  the  campaign  for  the  governor- 
ship in  the  hope  of  receiving  a  popular  vindication  from  the 
charges  made  against  him  in  his  controversy  with  Crawford. 
In  the  1824  legislature  he  had  stood  for  reelection  to  the 
senate  and  had  been  defeated  for  the  unexpired  term  by  John 
McLean  who,  in  his  turn,  was  beaten  for  the  full  term  by  Elias 
Kent  Kane.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  election  left  his  enemies 

21  Edivardsville  Spectator,  May  27,  June  30,  July  7,  28,  August  4,  1826; 
Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  25,  June  29,  August  3,  1826;  Illinois  Gazette,  April 
*8,  1836. 


WAR   ON    NINIAN   EDWARDS  109 

quarrelling  among  themselves  and  that  Lockwood  and  Browne 
of  his  faction  were  reelected  to  the  supreme  court,  the  rebuff 
was  a  hard  one ;  and  he  naturally  listened  to  those  of  his  friends 
who  assured  him  that  the  people  were  anxious  to  prove  their 
confidence  in  him  by  giving  him  an  overwhelming  vote  for  gov- 
ernor. R.  M.  Young  assured  him  of  a  vote  of  five  or  more  to 
one  in  the  southwestern  counties  where  the  Jackson  men  were 
anxious  to  rebuke  Crawford.  Till  the  campaign  of  1826  was 
near  its  climax  Edwards  retained  his  confidence  that  his  vindi- 
cation was  to  be  by  a  flood  of  popular  votes  and  could  not 
understand  why  his  opponent  Thomas  Sloo  did  not  give  up 
the  contest  unless  he  trusted  to  some  bit  of  eleventh-hour  chi- 
canery.22 

Edwards  set  forth  on  a  state  wide  personal  campaign. 
Everywhere  his  main  theme  was  an  arraignment  of  the  financial 
mismanagement  of  the  state  in  recent  years.  He  assailed  the 
legislature  for  paying  out  state  paper  at  a  third  its  face  value 
and  for  issuing  auditor's  warrants  at  a  similar  depreciation. 
He  took  credit  to  himself  for  having  secured  annual  sales  for 
taxes  of  nonresidents'  land  as  well  as  residents';  under  the 
former  system  he  averred  nonresidents  had  deprived  the  people 
of  Illinois  of  a  currency  by  hoarding  depreciated  state  paper  to 
use  in  paying  their  taxes.  "  Such  impositions  as  these,"  so 
ran  his  drafted  speech,  "upon  a  free,  high-minded  and  inde- 
pendent people,  I  boldly  assert  have  no  parallels  in  the  annals 
of  free  government,  and  they  are  only  to  be  borne  by  that 
Christian  charity.  .  .  ,"23  One  writer  not  disposed  to  be 
unfriendly  to  Edwards  stated  that  sometimes  his  denunciations 
traveled  even  farther  and  covered  the  whole  course  of  govern- 
ment from  the  halcyon  days  of  his  territorial  role  and 
"  arraigned  and  charged  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion  every 
man  who  has  shared  with  yourself  the  confidence  of  the  people." 
Edwards,  it  may  be  noted,  denied  this  charge  in  its  terms  rather 
than  in  its  spirit.24  It  would  not  be  surprising  if  in  oratorical 

22  Washburne,  Ediuards  Papers,  237-239. 

23  Edwards,  History  of  Illinois,  203-206,  213-214. 

24  Illinois  Intelligencer,  July  6,  1826. 


no  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

enthusiasm  he  sometimes  transgressed  the  bounds  of  his  manu- 
script speech.  Whether,  as  his  opponents  suggested,  in  each 
county  he  expressly  exempted  its  delegations  from  his  censures 
cannot  be  known. 

Edwards'  attacks  on  the  legislature  drew  forth  a  retort 
which  contributed  powerfully  to  Cook's  defeat  and  to  the  nar- 
rowness of  his  own  plurality.  Strangely  enough  it  came  from 
George  Forquer,  a  man  hitherto,  and  later,  hand-in-glove  with 
Edwards  politically  and  even  then  inclined  to  favor  him  as 
against  his  opponent.  Forquer  was  a  man  of  hot  and  suspicious 
temper,  quick  to  suspect  and  resent  treachery  on  the  part  of  a 
political  associate;  and  possibly  in  a  moment  of  irritation  at 
Edwards'  attacks  on  the  legislature  of  which  he  had  been  a 
member  and  of  distrust  of  Edwards'  good  faith  toward  himself, 
he  published  in  the  Illinois  Intelligencer  of  July  6  an  article 
signed  "Tyro."  In  spite  of  the  signature  the  blow  was  sped 
by  the  hand  of  a  master  of  controversy,  and  it  reached  not  only 
Edwards  but  the  whole  system  of  factional  strife  in  politics 
which  he  personified. 

"Tyro"  pronounced  that  the  attacks  of  Edwards  on  the 
legislature  as  a  body  merely  to  pave  his  own  way  to  political 
power  were  enough  to  alienate  all  thinking  men  from  him. 
Though  politically  able,  he  was  by  no  means  infallible ;  instead 
of  seeking  the  office  as  a  vindication  he  was  pursuing  it  madly 
through  ex-cathedra  denunciations  of  measures  and  men.  He 
should  remember,  "  Tyro "  added,  that  the  days  when  the 
factional  strife  of  the  territorial  parties  could  keep  men  in 
political  subjection  had  departed.  "The  sycophants  of  terri- 
torial bondage  have  lost  their  influence  and  dwindled  into  con- 
tempt. The  dazzling  halo,  with  which  the  former  exercise  of 
lordly  power,  occasioned  the  ignorant  to  associate  your  name, 
is  broken,  and  you  now  stand  before  them  as  an  object  of 
political  charity — a  naked,  crumbling  monument  of  a  morbid 
ambition.  A  race  of  men,  honorable  in  their  views,  pure  in 
their  feelings,  with  talents  hereafter  to  be  felt,  are  now  in 
political  embryo,  who  have  not  been  tamed  or  degraded  under 


WAR   ON    NINIAN   EDWARDS  in 

the  banners  of  either  of  the  old  parties  that  originated  the 
territorial  feuds,  and  which  have  ever  since  harassed  the  coun- 
try with  the  most  intolerant  proscription."  Forquer  had  dis- 
cerned the  fallacy  that  underlay  the  whole  factional  system  — 
it  imbued  its  adherents  with  the  idea  that  the  open  and  avowed 
end  of  politics  was  the  gratification  of  a  personal  ambition. 
Under  "Tyro's"  analysis  the  absurdity  of  Edwards'  seeking 
a  public  office  to  salve  his  honor  of  a  thrust  received  in  factional 
warfare  is  self-evident. 

" On  the  first  appearance  of  Tyro"  wrote  John  Marshall 
after  the  election,  "  I  anticipated  the  storm  that  was  to  follow. 
...  I  was  not  mistaken,  it  was  a  fatal  storm.  You  must  be 
aware  now  that  the  freedom  with  which  you  commented  on  the 
management  of  the  finances,  State  Bank,  &c.,  however  just  was 
nevertheless  very  impolitick.  It  arrayed  almost  every  man  that 
had  been  in  the  Legislature  since  1821  and  all  the  Bank  and 
Circuit  Court  interest  against  you,  which,  by  a  little  manage- 
ment aided  by  the  cry  of  'a  family  of  rulers'  was  unfortun- 
ately brought  to  bear  on  Mr.  Cook." 25 

The  attempt  to  turn  the  politics  of  a  state  to  the  advantage 
of  a  personal  faction  had  resulted  fatally  to  the  faction  whose 
work  first  was  made  apparent  to  the  people.  Edwards  was 
elected  by  a  vote  that  considering  the  weakness  of  his  opponent 
and  the  great  expectations  with  which  he  had  begun  the  contest 
was  in  itself  a  disgrace.  He  could  muster  but  6,280  votes 
against  5,833  for  Sloo  and  580  for  Adolphus  F.  Hubbard,  the 
butt  and  jest  of  Illinois  politics.  Joseph  Duncan  defeated  Cook 
by  a  vote  of  6,322  to  5,619  excluding  824  votes  cast  for  James 
Turney. 

Cook's  defeat  has  usually  been  laid  to  popular  resentment 
at  his  vote  for  Adams.  But  while  the  issue  was  raised  in  the 
campaign  and  while  outside  the  state  Cook's  defeat  was  re- 
peatedly assigned  to  it,  the  evidence  that  it  was  the  deciding 
factor  is  by  no  means  conclusive.  Edwards  asserted  that  it 
had  not  been,  though  his  statement  may  be  assigned  to  an 

28  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  255. 


ii2  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

anxiety  to  convince  Clay  that  he  held  the  balance  between  the 
Jackson  and  administration  forces  in  the  state.  Duncan,  how- 
ever, did  not  run  as  a  Jackson  man.  Further,  in  1826  Cook  lost 
decisively  but  few  Jackson  counties  on  which  his  hold  had  not 
been  precarious  before,  though  in  many  instances  he  lost  them 
by  increased  majorities.  Not  one  of  the  Jackson  counties  that 
he  lost  in  1826  did  he  carry  both  in  1822  and  1824.  Further 
he  obtained  decisive  votes  in  several  strong  Jackson  counties 
such  as  Pope,  Gallatin,  Edgar,  Morgan,  Greene,  and  Alexan- 
der. Pope  county  he  carried  by  an  increased  majority  and 
Gallatin  and  Alexander  he  had  lost  in  1824.  Marshall's  letter 
already  cited  is  evidence  against  the  accuracy  of  the  assertion. 
Further  the  story  that  Cook's  vote  was  the  cause  of  his  defeat 
tended  to  establish  itself  in  Illinois  history,  since  in  1830  the 
supporters  of  Kinney  were  anxious  to  prove  Reynolds'  apos- 
tasy to  Jackson ;  and  they  argued  that  he  had  supported  Cook 
in  1826,  representing  Cook  as  at  that  time  defeated  on  the 
Jackson  issue. 

The  explanations  offered  by  friends  who  were  in  close  touch 
with  the  situation  were  Cook's  inability  to  stump  the  state,  the 
reiterations  of  the  old  public  land  charge,  and  the  use  of  the 
fact  that  father-in-law  and  son-in-law  were  at  the  same  time 
running  for  the  two  highest  offices  in  the  gift  of  the  people  of 
Illinois.28  Yet  the  historian  may  speculate  whether  in  view  of 
the  letter  of  Marshall  and  the  article  by  "Tyro"  the  causes 
mentioned  were  not  symptoms  of  a  cause  rather  than  causes 
themselves.  Their  gravamen  after  all  lies  in  the  assump- 
tion that  Edwards  and  Cook  in  their  political  course  had  been 
moved  by  their  pecuniary  interests  and  their  personal  ambi- 
tions. It  was  that  against  which  "Tyro"  had  really  pro- 
tested, the  governing  of  the  state  for  the  benefit  of  the  leaders 
of  a  personal  clique. 

Finally  one  may  note  that  Edwards  and  Cook  assumed 
toward  their  constituents  an  attitude  characteristic  of  the  past 

18  Edwards,  History  of  Illinois,  451 ;  Washburne,  Edivards  Paptrs,  260- 
261 ;  Edtvardsville  Spectator,  July  7,  September  29,  1826. 


WAR   ON   NINIAN   EDWARDS  113 

rather  than  the  future.  Edwards  had  pompously  asserted  that 
he  was  a  candidate  for  office  by  the  call  of  the  people,  and  that 
anyone  contesting  with  him  must  do  so  for  sinister  motives.27 
Cook's  friends  repeatedly  urged  the  grants  he  had  obtained  at 
Washington  and  the  further  benefits  that  he  as  a  member  of 
ability  and  a  friend  to  the  administration  could  procure  for  the 
state.  Yet  in  spite  of  apostrophes  to  the  paramount  abilities  of 
Edwards  and  of  promises  of  canal  lands  to  be  procured  by 
Cook,  the  people  of  Illinois  had  voted  in  great  numbers  for 
men  admittedly  of  narrow  abilities  who  could  promise  little 
in  the  way  of  public  services.  The  older  political  order  was 
fading  away,  and  Jacksonian  democracy  was  on  the  horizon. 

27  Illinois  Intelligencer,  August  3,  1826. 


VI.     THE  RISE  OF  JACKSONIAN  DEMOCRACY 


first  waves  of  the  rising  tide  of  westernism  which 
JL  found  its  expression  in  Jacksonian  democracy  had  helped 
to  undermine  Cook's  popularity  in  1826.  As  year  after  year 
the  tide  rose  the  old  factions  of  Illinois  politics  were  to  take 
note  of  it  and  to  seek  to  turn  it  to  their  own  political  advantage 
or  else  to  endeavor  to  evade  its  full  force  without  traveling 
with  it;  but  in  the  end  the  whole  factional  system  of  state 
politics  was  to  be  swept  away  by  the  flood  tide  of  the  new 
democracy.  To  understood  fully  the  character  and  ideals  of 
the  movement  on  which  Jackson  rode  triumphant  through  the 
latter  part  of  his  political  career  is  to  understand  the  history 
of  the  United  States  for  two  decades.  Such  an  understanding 
is  not  easy  to  attain.  Sometimes  nearer,  sometimes  farther, 
from  the  heart  of  the  movement  was  the  chicanery  and  man- 
agement of  crafty  politicians.  The  personnel  changes:  old 
leaders  go  over  into  opposition,  and  late  converts  take  their 
places.  Intellectually  the  movement  develops  and  evolves  so 
that  the  radical  ideals  of  1837  and  1840  to  the  Jackson  men  of 
1824  would  have  appeared  outlandish.  Any  estimate  of  Jack- 
sonism  must  take  careful  account  of  the  fact  that  it  was  an 
idea  intensely  alive  and  therefore  intensely  variable. 

Perhaps  the  surest  guide  to  the  underlying  elements  of 
Jacksonism  that  persisted  throughout  the  movement  is  the 
character  of  Jackson  himself.  That  his  character  could  divide 
men  into  worshippers  and  bitter  critics  was  shown  in  the  con- 
gressional investigation  of  the  Seminole  campaign  during  the 
session  of  1818-1819,  the  first  in  which  the  state  of  Illinois 
had  a  voice.  To  men  of  one  type  of  mind  the  raid  into  Spanish 
territory,  the  execution  of  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister,  and  above 
all,  Jackson's  deliberate  disregard  of  his  orders  in  raising  a 

"4 


RISE   OF  JACKSONIAN   DEMOCRACY    115 

company  of  Tennessee  riflemen  and  mustering  them  into 
United  States  service,  instead  of  calling  on  neighboring  states 
for  militia  as  he  had  been  instructed,  were  alike  characteristic 
of  a  "military  chieftain"  ruthless  and  lawless,  the  very  coun- 
terpart of  the  men  who  have  in  Europe  and  South  America 
made  republican  government  a  travesty  on  liberty. 

On  the  other  hand  in  the  defenses  of  Jackson's  character 
and  conduct  one  catches  an  echo  of  the  spirit  of  the  American 
frontier — its  directness  and  its  disregard  of  all  theories  of 
action  not  corresponding  with  the  facts  of  life.  Jackson  had 
been  set  the  task  of  defending  the  frontier.  He  had  taken  the 
shortest  and  most  direct  way  to  do  it,  using  the  forces  best 
suited  to  it,  and  not  refraining  from  regard  to  the  sensibilities 
of  men  who  actually  sympathized  with  the  Indians.  The  means 
he  had  taken  were  neither  humanitarian  nor  constitutional,  but 
they  were  effective.  Such  a  man  to  a  west  that  had  seen  the 
doubts,  hesitations,  and  failures  of  the  Jeffersonian  school 
seemed  formed  more  nearly  in  the  image  of  Washington  and 
the  revolutionary  heroes. 

The  men  who  urged  Jackson's  claims  to  the  presidential 
succession  contrasted  the  claims  of  the  man  who  had  served 
his  country  in  the  field  with  the  claims  of  those  who  had  served 
her  in  congress  or  in  the  cabinet.  They  felt  that  the  closet 
statesmen  at  Washington  had  disregarded  Jackson's  just  claims 
because  he  was  not  one  of  themselves  and  had  not  been  initiated 
into  their  methods  of  political  finesse.  The  caucus  which  nomi- 
nated Crawford  must  have  seemed  the  very  embodiment  of 
such  methods.  The  feeling  culminated  in  1825  when  John 
Quincy  Adams  was  elected  president  by  the  house  of  representa- 
tives, in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Jackson,  of  the  four  candidates, 
had  received  a  plurality  of  electoral  and  possibly  of  popular 
votes.  That  the  wirepullers  should  triumph  over  the  plain 
soldier  aroused  intense  indignation.1  The  cause  of  Jackson 
was  associated  by  his  friends  with  the  broader  cause  of  democ- 
racy. In  the  session  of  1825-1826  a  constitutional  amendment 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  15  congress,  2  session,  256,  517,  529,  656,  689. 


n6  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

introduced  in  congress  providing  for  a  direct  popular  vote  on 
the  presidency  put  on  record  in  the  debate  those  who  were  will- 
ing to  trust  the  people  and  those  who  were  not.  On  one  side 
were  men  who  averred  that  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States  did  not  permit  of  democracy  and  that  a  legislative  train- 
ing in  statesmanship  was  an  implied  requisite  for  a  holder  of 
high  office ;  men  who  defended  the  caucus  because  they  believed 
that,  if  the  congress  did  not  eliminate  a  plurality  of  candidates 
before  the  election,  the  house  or  the  senate  would  have  to 
choose  between  them  in  the  end ;  and  finally,  men  who  used  the 
states'  rights  argument.2  Everett  stated  bluntly  what  was  per- 
haps in  the  minds  of  many,  when  he  declared  that  a  president 
elected  by  an  overwhelming  majority  would  be  a  dangerous 
one. 

On  the  other  side  were  those  who  believed  that  the  people 
should  nominate  and  elect  the  president  directly,  that  he  should 
be  dependent  on  them  for  office  and  responsible  to  them  for 
his  acts.3  This  was  the  theory  which  was  later  to  be  so  boldly 
asserted  by  Jackson  in  his  claim  to  represent  the  popular  will 
and  which  was  exemplified  by  him  in  his  war  on  the  senate. 

In  Illinois  the  Jackson  campaign  of  1828  began  December 
9,  1826,  when  in  the  house  of  representatives  A.  P.  Field  offered 
a  resolution  indorsing  Jackson  and  asserting  that  the  election 
of  Adams  was  by  bargain  and  sale  and  contrary  to  the  will  of 
the  majority.  Three  days  later  a  motion  to  lay  on  the  table 
till  July  4,  the  usual  way  of  killing  a  measure,  was  lost  by  a 
vote  of  1 6  to  20.  The  counter-argument,  as  expounded  by 
Alfred  W.  Cavarly,  was  that  such  action  would  prejudice  the 
land  grants  for  which  the  people  of  Illinois  were  petitioning 
congress,  that  it  was  unusual  and  could  not  be  supported  by  any 
valid  proof  of  the  charges  made.  A  compromise  amendment 
offered  by  Thomas  Reynolds  which  merely  expressed  confidence 
in  Jackson  was  lost  18  to  18.  Field  finally  moved  to  make  the 
matter  a  mere  nomination  of  Jackson,  but  his  motion  was 

2  Storrs,  Archer,  Stevenson,  Ingersoll,  and  Mitchell  of  Tennessee. 
3Saunders,  Cambreleng,  Drayton,  Polk,  Isacks,  Lecompte,  and  Mitchell  of 
South  Carolina. 


defeated  19  to  17.  January  8,  1827,  a  motion  to  take  up  the 
resolution  was  lost  1 8  to  1 8  by  a  slightly  different  alignment 
of  votes.  On  the  last  day  of  the  session,  with  five  Adams  men 
and  one  Jackson  supporter  absent,  a  resolution  declaring  for 
Jackson  passed  19  to  1 1.  Such  was  the  alignment  of  the  house. 
Although  no  vote  directly  indicating  the  alignment  was  taken 
in  the  senate  there  was  said  to  be  an  administration  ma- 
jority of  2. 

Outside  the  legislature  the  movement  in  favor  of  Jackson 
was  continued  through  the  agency  of  county  meetings.  One 
was  held  at  Belleville  on  March  8,  which  recommended  Jack- 
son as  a  candidate  and  urged  the  holding  of  similar  meetings 
to  take  measures  for  his  election.  "They  hope,"  was  the 
comment  of  the  administration  organ,  the  Intelligencer,  "by 
this  mean,  not  only  to  discover  their  own  strength  but  to  give 
tone  to  public  feeling;  and  if  possible,  induce  a  belief  that 
Jackson  is  the  strong  candidate."4  In  May,  Kinney,  West, 
T.  W.  Smith,  and  Kane  were  busy  with  a  project  to  publish  a 
Jackson  newspaper  in  the  state;  and  the  next  fall  Fleming 
began  printing  the  Illinois  Corrector  at  Edwardsville.  In  the 
late  fall  and  winter  under  the  tutelage  of  the  leaders  district 
conventions  to  nominate  electors  were  held;  and  in  these  as 
well  as  in  the  county  meetings  which  elected  delegates  to  them, 
resolutions  were  adopted  denouncing  Adams  and  praising  Jack- 
son. The  Illinois  Gazette  asserted  that  the  county  meetings 
rarely  consisted  of  over  twelve  or  fifteen  persons  and  that  they 
were  drummed  up  in  county  after  county  by  political  circuit 
riders  like  A.  P.  Field.  Undoubtedly  there  was  machinery  at 
work,  but  in  view  of  the  results  there  must  have  been  something 
more.5 

In  the  political  comment  of  the  Illinois  administration 
papers  one  notes  surprise  or  even  alarm  at  the  lengths  to  which 
the  Jackson  enthusiasm  was  going.  The  Intelligencer  com- 

*  Illinois  Intelligencer,  March  24,  1827. 

5  Kinney  to  Kane,  May  12,  1827,  in  Kane  manuscripts;  Illinois  Intelligencer, 
October  12,  1827,  January  5,  March  i,  29,  May  10,  June  21,  1828;  Illinois 
Gazette,  May  3,  17,  1828. 


n8  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

mented  sarcastically  on  such  ebullitions  of  enthusiasm  as  public 
meetings  in  which  the  planting  of  hickory  trees  was  an  impor- 
tant part  of  the  exercises.  It  complained  that  New  York  had 
been  lost  to  Adams  by  the  votes  of  the  riffraff.  One  Fourth 
of  July  orator  of  the  preceding  year  had  reminded  his  hearers 
that  popular  rights  was  the  favorite  theme  of  demagogues  and 
that  the  fathers  of  the  republic  had  equally  opposed  the  des- 
potism of  a  monarch  and  the  licentiousness  of  the  mob.6  The 
Intelligencer  clipped  from  Niles  Weekly  Register  an  editorial 
speculating  as  to  why  the  election  of  a  president  should  be 
fraught  with  so  much  more  violence  than  the  elections  of  sena- 
tors, especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  senate  with  its 
power  of  trial  in  cases  of  impeachments  was  by  so  much  the 
more  important  branch  of  government!  The  enthusiasm  for 
Jackson  presaged  to  men  of  conservative  mind  the  end  of  a 
stable  and  balanced  political  universe,  in  which  sobriety,  stand- 
ing, and  solid  talents  had  governed. 

Either  side  in  the  campaign  freely  barbed  its  arguments 
with  abuse  of  the  opposing  candidate.  For  the  Jackson  forces 
the  "corrupt  bargain"  between  Clay  and  Adams  by  which 
Clay  in  return  for  the  secretaryship  of  state  was  alleged  to 
have  thrown  his  forces  to  Adams  did  full  duty  in  spite  of  the 
numerous  refutations  that  were  published.  The  South  Ameri- 
can policy  of  Adams  and  the  alleged  loss  of  the  West  India 
trade  were  duly  considered,  together  with  such  matters  as  his 
lavish  furnishing  of  the  east  room  of  the  White  House  and  his 
purchase  of  a  billiard  table  —  a' piece  of  furniture  that  in  the 
Illinois  statutes  figured  only  as  a  gaming  device.  In  view  of 
Clay's  duel  with  Randolph,  the  accusation  was  made  that  the 
government  at  Washington  was  a  "  duelling  administration !  "7 

For  the  reason  that  files  of  two  Illinois  administration 
newspapers  have  been  preserved  and  almost  no  Jackson  papers 
have  been  handed  down,  it  is  easier  to  outline  the  attack  on 
Jackson  than  to  state  his  defense.  Efforts  were  made  to  prove 

6  Leonard  Ross  at  Atlas.    Illinois  Intelligencer,  August  4,  1827. 
''Ibid.,  November  4,  1826,  August  n,  September  8,  15,  1827. 


RISE   OF  JACKSONIAN   DEMOCRACY   119 

that  the  real  attempt  at  bargain  and  intrigue  in  1825  had  been 
in  his  favor.  The  statement  that  Jackson  was  a  federalist  in 
disguise  was  supported  by  the  publication  of  his  letter  to 
Monroe  in  1817  urging  the  latter  to  appoint  federalists  to 
office.  Jackson  himself  was  represented  as  a  rowdy,  a  cock- 
fighter,  a  gambler,  and  a  devotee  of  the  code  of  honor.8 
Toward  the  end  of  the  campaign  his  opponents  fell  back  on 
such  charges  as  that  he  was  a  Negro  trader  and  a  ferreter  out 
of  flaws  in  land  titles. 

Naturally  in  this  campaign  also  Jackson  was  represented 
as  a  "Military  Chieftain."  A  remark  of  Jefferson  to  Coles 
to  the  effect  that  the  heavy  popular  vote  for  Jackson  made 
him  doubt  the  stability  of  free  institutions  was  made  to  do 
duty  in  Illinois.  His  arbitrary  conduct  when  New  Orleans 
was  under  martial  law  was  represented  as  an  instance  of  his 
military  violation  of  civil  power.  The  incident  most  relied 
on,  however,  was  his  execution  of  six  militiamen  for  what  was 
represented  as  at  the  most  a  technical  desertion  after  their  term 
of  service  had  expired.9  For  many  a  long  year  of  his  service 
in  the  democratic  party  Sidney  Breese  writhed  under  the  charge 
that  he  had  distributed  "  coffin  handbills,"  with  the  coffins  of 
the  six  depicted  at  the  top  and  subscribed  with  doleful  verse : 

He  ordered  Harris  out  to  die, 

And  five  poor  fellows  more ! 
Young  gallant  men  in  prime  of  life, 

To  welter  in  their  gore 

'T  was  all  in  vain,  John  Harris  prayed, 

'T  is  past  the  soul's  belief. 
Hard  as  a  flint  was  Jackson's  heart, 

He  would  not  grant  relief 


8  Illinois  Gazette,  June  7,  1828;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  August  4,  October  13, 
November  17,  1827,  April  5,  May  24,  1828. 

9  Ibid.,  August  4,  December  i,  1827. 


120  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

Sure  he  will  spare !    Sure  Jackson  yet 

Will  all  reprieve  but  one  — 
Oh  hark !  those  shrieks !  that  cry  of  death ! 

The  dreadful  deed  is  done  !10 

Besides  all  the  personal  issues  there  were  issues  of  national 
policy  at  question  in  the  election.  The  administration  news- 
papers represented  that  the  Adams  policy  of  internal  improve- 
ments and  protection  to  manufactures  was  the  policy  pre- 
eminently adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  west. '  The  insufficient 
market  for  western  produce  at  New  Orleans  was  a  graphic 
argument  for  a  system  that  would  both  enable  manufactures 
to  spring  up  on  the  soil  of  Illinois  and  furnish  her  with  outlets 
to  additional  markets.  Many  of  the  Jackson  men  were  dis- 
posed to  agree  with  this  estimate  of  the  true  interest  of  the 
west  and  to  insist  that  Jackson  also  favored  the  policy.  The 
administration  papers  forced  the  fighting  on  the  tariff  issue, 
a  live  national  issue  even  at  this  early  date,  accusing  the 
Corrector  of  hedging  and  vacillating  on  it. 

The  Adams  internal  improvement  policy  offered  an  issue 
even  more  vital  to  Illinois.11  Edwards  as  early  as  1825  had 
pointed  out  to  Clay  the  strength  that  the  administration  would 
gain  by  the  announcement  of  a  project  for  a  connection  between 
western  waters,  the  lakes,  and  the  Atlantic.  In  the  meetings  in 
northern  Illinois  held  to  celebrate  the  passage  of  the  canal  bill 
of  1827  there  were  resolutions  and  speeches  full  of  gratitude 
to  Edwards,  Cook,  Adams,  Clay,  and  the  internal  improvement 
policy.  Calhoun's  casting  vote  against  the  measure  in  1826 
and  the  unfriendliness  to  it  of  Jackson's  friends  were  supposed 
to  have  seriously  imperiled  Jackson's  chances.  Consequently 
the  Intelligencer  laid  its  greatest  emphasis  on  the  importance 
of  the  internal  improvement  policy  to  Illinois.  Toward  the 

10  Chicago  Democrat,  April  29,  1840. 

^Illinois  Intelligencer,  April  21,  1827;  Illinois  Gazette,  February  23,  1828; 
Kimmel  to  Eddy,  November  7,  1827,  in  Eddy  manuscripts.  The  Jackson  con- 
vention at  Springfield  resolved  that  it  was  convinced  that  its  candidate,  Andrew 
Jackson,  was  for  protection  and  internal  improvement.  Illinois  Intelligencer, 
May  10,  1828. 


RISE   OF  JACKSONIAN   DEMOCRACY   121 

end  of  the  campaign  in  an  attempt  to  stir  up  sectional  prejudice 
the    administration   papers    represented   anti-tariff    and   anti- 
internal  improvement  as  policies  dictated  by  the  slave  states.12 
The  supporters  of  Jackson  endeavored  to  demonstrate 
Adams'  hostility  to  western  interests  on  another  issue,  that  of 
the  public  lands.     Ever  since  the  spring  of  1824  Benton  had 
been  urging  a  measure  designed  to  remove  the  complaint  that 
the  United  States  arrested  the  development  of  the  western 
states  by  disposing  of  its  lands  on  terms  too  unfavorable  to 
the  purchasers.     His  graduation  bill  embodied  the  principle 
that  the  unsold  public  lands  be  each  year  reduced  in  price 
twenty-five  cents  an  acre  till  they  reached  twenty-five  cents, 
when  if  they  did  not  find  purchasers  they  should  be  ceded  to 
the  states.     The  measures  also  provided  that  when  the  price 
of  public  lands  had  reached  fifty  cents  an  acre,  they  should  be 
donated  to  actual  settlers  in  eighty  acre  tracts.     Benton  intro- 
duced this  bill  year  by  year,  but  it  was  not  till  1826  that  he 
was  permitted  even  to  speak  on  it.     In  that  year,  when  in  a 
propaganda  for  the  measure  he  had  secured  a  memorial  from 
the  Missouri  legislature  indorsing  it,  it  was  taken  under  the 
wing  of  the  Jackson  party  in  the  state.    In  congress  it  received 
the  support  of  Kane  and  Duncan,  but  roused  the  opposition  of 
such  men  as  Benton's  colleague  and  rival,  David  Barton,  who 
insisted  it  was  an  attempt  to  carry  on  the  movement,  frustrated 
in  1820,  which  had  been  throwing  the  public  domain  into  the 
hands  of  speculators.    It  was  defeated  in  1828  in  the  senate, 
eleven  Jackson  senators,  as  the  administration  men  pointed 
out,  voting  among  the  twenty-five  opponents  of  the  measure. 
The  Jackson  men,   however,  turned  to   Richard  Rush's  last 
report  as  secretary  of  the  treasury  in  which  he  injudiciously 
urged  protection  to  manufactures  on  the  ground  that  it  would 
keep  population  in  the  east  where  it  could  accumulate  capital 
instead  of  spreading  it  thinly  over  the  lands  of  the  west.     His 
further  argument  that  the  low  price  of  the  public  lands  acted 

12  Washburne,    Edwards   Papers,    240;    Illinois    Gazette,    June    28,    1828; 
Illinois  Intelligencer,  March  17,  August  4,  November  3,  1827,  July  5,  1828. 


122  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

as  a  bounty  on  agriculture  which  should  be  supplemented  by 
one  on  manufactures  was,  if  anything,  still  more  unfortunate. 
Both  were  used  by  the  opposition  to  prove  the  sinister  aspect 
of  the  whole  Adams  policy  toward  the  west.18 

The  question  of  the  public  lands  in  Illinois  politics  followed 
a  rather  unusual  course.  First  it  must  be  noted  that  side  by 
side  with  Benton's  scheme  in  congress  appeared  the  suggestions 
on  the  part  of  certain  members  that  congress  might  well  cede 
the  public  lands  to  the  states  in  which  they  lay.  This  plan  was 
usually  based  on  an  extreme  theory  of  state  sovereignty  which 
proclaimed  that,  as  the  new  states  were  admitted  into  congress 
on  an  equal  footing  with  the  old  in  all  respects,  it  was  prepos- 
terous that  the  federal  government  should  control  the  soil  in 
them,  and  accordingly  declared  that  all  compacts  recognizing 
such  a  right  were  null  and  void.  Benton  had  disclaimed  any 
such  implication  in  his  measure ;  but  the  theory  was  enunciated 
by  several  westerners,  such  as  Hendricks,  who  were  well  dis- 
posed to  it.  Tazewell  indeed  had  in  1826  proposed  a  corre- 
sponding measure.14  Other  senators  had  favored  the  principle. 
But  in  Illinois,  Edwards,  who  had  declared  in  his  message  of 
1826  that  if  the  state  did  not  receive  the  cession  it  must  have 
classification  and  who  in  1828  supported  Forquer's  rival  pro- 
posal for  a  graduation  based  on  a  classification  by  value,  came 
out  in  his  1828  message  with  a  tedioo  and  labored  defense  of 
the  right  of  the  states  to  the  public  lands  based  on  doctrines 
of  state  sovereignty.  This  measure  may  have  been  an  attempt 
to  outbid  his  old  enemies,  Benton,  Kane,  and  Duncan  for 
popular  support  or  it  may  have  been,  as  his  enemies  suggested, 
designed  in  the  interest  of  his  own  landholdings  to  stir  up  such 
animosity  in  the  east  as  would  ruin  the  chances  of  the  gradu- 
ation bill.  Possibly,  as  Duff  Green  suggested,  he  hoped  that 
the  measure  would  be  the  basis  of  a  coalition  between  the  west 
and  his  old  friends  of  Calhoun's  party  in  the  south.  On  pub- 
lic lands,  tariff,  and  internal  improvements  in  1828-1829  it 

13  Congressional  Debates,  1827-1828,  p.  483-521,  614-629,  678,  2832  ff. 

14  Ibid.,  1827-1828,  152  ff.,  625-629;  ibid.,  1825-1826,  p.  782. 


RISE   OF  JACKSONIAN   DEMOCRACY   123 

was  a  question  of  alliances :  would  the  west  accept  tariff  and 
internal  improvements  and  yield  up  the  public  lands  policy 
to  the  jealousy  of  her  growth  harbored  in  the  east,  or  would 
she  ally  herself  with  the  south  in  return  for  free  trade  and  a 
favorable  land  policy?  The  alternative  was  not  clearly  per- 
ceived in  1828  ;  nor  was  it  definitely  recognized  for  some  years; 
but  in  the  large,  so  far  as  Illinois  was  concerned,  the  decision 
had  been  made. 

The  graduation  policy  as  presented  by  Benton  was  a  meas- 
ure democratic  in  its  intent.  In  spite  of  what  was  said  by 
Barton  and  others  one  cannot  help  feeling  that  Benton  was 
right  in  holding  that  speculation  on  a  large  scale  in  unim- 
proved land  was  a  hazardous  business  so  long  as  so  much  wild 
land  was  still  in  government  hands  and  that  hitherto  specu- 
lators had  burnt  their  fingers  in  handling  both  public  lands 
and  military  bounty  lands.15  Benton  argued  that  the  measure 
would  give  to  the  poor  the  opportunity  by  which  they  might 
rise  to  the  position  of  useful  citizens;  he  even  argued  that  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  government  to  settle  the  wild  lands  as 
expeditiously  as  might  be,  since  men  naturally  had  a  right  to 
the  soil. 

The  tide  flowed  toward  Jackson.  Although  the  final  vote 
—  9,582  to  4,662  —  was  overwhelmingly  in  Jackson's  favor, 
the  change  in  sentiment  was  by  no  means  immediate  or  general 
throughout  the  state.  On  May  16,  1827,  Joseph  M.  Street 
reported  to  Edwards  from  Shawneetown  that  the  old  Clay, 
Adams,  and  Crawford  men  were  nearly  all  supporting  the  ad- 
ministration; and  early  in  the  next  month  he  ascribed  the 
weakness  of  Jackson  to  the  bitter  factional  feeling  in  that 
section  against  Kinney  and  Smith.  In  a  later  letter  he  reported 
McLean  much  cooler  toward  Jackson.  As  late  as  August  15, 
1827,  one  of  Kane's  correspondents  believed  that,  while  at 
that  time  Jackson  had  a  majority  in  the  state,  in  the  end  Adams 
would  run  very  well.  By  February  22,  1828,  Smith  estimated 
that  the  Adams  men  had  given  up  Illinois. 

15  Congressional  Debates,  1825-1826,  p.  720. 


i24  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

While  the  political  issues  of  the  future  were  brewing  in  the 
real  Jackson  movement,  the  leaders  of  the  faction  were  watch- 
ing events  and  planning  that  their  personal  interests  should 
not  suffer.  Such  old  Crawford  men  as  Kinney,  Kane,  T.  W. 
Smith,  Bond,  and  McLean  had  gone  over  to  Jackson.  By 
1828-1829  the  fervency  and  zeal  of  these  converts  for  party 
regularity  and  proscription  of  their  opponents  was  viewed 
by  the  older  Jackson  men,  such  as  S.  H.  Kimmel  and  A.  P. 
Field,  with  ill-concealed  impatience. 

On  the  other  side  Edwards  was  balancing  on  the  political 
fence  which  divided  the  Jackson  forces  and  the  administration. 
On  the  one  hand  Duff  Green  was  assuring  him  of  Jackson's 
regard,  his  disposition  to  condone  Cook's  vote  for  Adams,  and 
the  certainty  of  Edwards'  triumph  if  he  only  would  come  out 
for  the  constitutional  amendment,  which  was  the  Jacksonian 
profession  of  faith.  On  the  other  hand,  Edwards  after  his 
election  took  an  independent  if  friendly  tone  toward  Clay. 
While  he  did  not  hesitate  to  speak  plainly  on  attacks  against 
himself  originating  in  administration  sources,  he  declared  that 
he  could  not,  in  view  of  the  attitude  of  Jackson's  friends 
toward  the  canal,  expect  the  Jackson  interest  to  predominate 
in  Illinois.  He  explained  the  small  plurality  by  which  he  had 
been  elected  by  saying  that  he  had  made  exertions  to  throw  all 
his  opponents  on  the  Jackson  side,  so  that  he  might  eventually 
turn  the  balance  either  way.  The  hint  to  the  administration 
was  obvious.  Edwards  was  supposed  in  1827  to  have  come 
out  for  Jackson,  but  he  supported  a  declared  Adams  man  for 
congress  in  1828,  so  that  his  position  remained  more  or  less 
equivocal.16 

In  state  politics  Edwards  gathered  what  hope  he  could 
from  the  fact  that  the  ranks  of  his  opponents  were  disinte- 
grating. The  two  senate rships  to  be  filled  in  1824  had  sown 
discord.  In  the  spring  of  that  year  Kane,  Kinney,  Sloo,  and 
Kitchell  all  had  their  eyes  on  the  prizes.  McLean  and  Coles 
also  stood  forth  as  candidates.  Kane  apparently  succeeded  in 

16  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  256,  259. 


RISE   OF  JACKSONIAN    DEMOCRACY    125 

combining  the  forces  in  support  of  McLean  in  order  to  beat 
Edwards  who  was  hoping  for  a  vindication  by  reelection. 
On  the  third  ballot  McLean  had  thirty-one  votes  to  nineteen 
for  Edwards  and  two  for  Pope.  A  week  later  Kane  was 
elected  for  the  long  term,  beating  Lockwood,  McLean,  Coles, 
and  Sloo.  McLean,  who  believed  he  had  been  tricked  into 
entering  the  contest  only  to  be  humiliated,  was  furious  and 
refused  to  be  soothed  by  asservations  that  he  had  been 
reserved  to  cap  the  triumph  of  the  coalition  by  beating  Cook 
for  congress.  Another  member  of  the  coalition  had  to  com- 
plain of  similar  treatment.  In  the  election  of  justices  of  the 
supreme  courtr,  Wilson  and  Browne  were  confirmed,  Lockwood 
and  T.  W.  Smith  elected,  and  John  Reynolds  frozen  out. 
Exactly  how  the  justices  of  the  Edwards  faction  were  elected 
is  a  problem.  Reynolds  very  probably  had  been  displaced  by 
T.  W.  Smith's  intrigues,  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that 
he  had  been  the  "whetstone"  in  the  affair.17 

The  effect  on  the  make-up  of  the  factions  of  this  intriguing 
is  admirably  described  by  a  political  observer  of  1827  whose 
statements  are  corroborated  by  such  independent  evidences  as 
exist  "Smith,  Kinney,  and  West,  are  about  to  set  up  a  News- 
paper at  Edwardsville  —  ostensibly  for  Jackson,  but  in  fact  to 
operate  in  State  politics.  Smith  and  Kinney  want  to  be  Senator 
and  Governor.  They  go  against  Edwards,  Thomas,  but  most 
especially  and  bitterly  against  McLean.  Party  No.  8  consists 
of  John  Reynolds  and  Tom  Reynolds  the  Beairs,  etc.,  Jno 
Reynolds  wants  to  be  Senator  —  is  inveterate  against  Smith, 
Edwards,  Thomas  and  dont  much  like  McLean.  Party  No. 
5  consists  of  Jesse  B.  Thomas  Solus  —  the  privates  and  officers 
yet  to  be  enlisted.  The  Honorable  Jesse  is  very  bitter  against 
Smith  and  Co.,  but  more  against  McLean.  He  swears  that 
McLean  is  a  dishonest  man  and  a  dishonest  politician  —  that 
he  cant,  and  by  G he  shant  be  elected ! 

"I  do  not  see  how  the  above  named  men  can  ever  again 

17  Kinney  to  Kane,  April  10,  1824,  in  Kane  manuscripts;  McLean  to  Sloo, 
January  16,  1825,  in  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1911,  p.  39; 
Reynolds  to  Cook,  December  30,  1824,  'n  Edwards  manuscripts. 


ii6  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

imaigamate,  at  any  rate  they  will  not  join  with  Party  No.  4 
which  consists  of  Jno  McLean  and  his  friends  —  Nor  with 
Party  No.  5  which  is  composed  of  Edwards  &  Co. 

"Depend  upon  it,  my  dear  Sir,"  he  continued,  "these  com- 
binations which  are  going  on  in  our  State  will  ruin  every  man 
who  is  engaged  in  them.  The  people  are  beginning  to  com- 
plain loudly.  Kinney  is  sinking  faster  than  I  ever  saw  any 
man,  his  violence  disgusts  even  his  friends.  Thomas  and 
Edwards  are  gone.  Smith  is  universally  feared,  his  ambition 
and  his  intriguing  spirit  alarm  friends  and  foes.  Lockwood 
and  Wilson  are  greatly  depreciated.  All  of  these  men  must 
go  down.  McLean  stands  best,  but  his  prospects  are  very 
doubtful.  .  .  ,"18 

Other  evidence  attests  the  precarious  condition  of  Edwards 
and  his  faction.  It  did  not  have  control  of  the  legislature 
chosen  in  1826,  and  thereby  all  Edwards'  assaults  on  the  admin- 
istration of  the  bank  and  finances  were  frustrated.  In  the  leg- 
islative elections  he  was  beaten.  By  the  death  of  Cook  in  1827 
he  lost  a  man  of  popularity  and  of  recognized  ability  and  what 
was  worse  a  loyal  comrade.  There  were  none  too  many  such 
left  among  Edwards'  followers.  Still  he  patiently  worked 
away,  seeking  once  more  to  attain  victory  by  the  old  methods. 

The  senatorial  election  of  1828  was  the  point  toward  which 
all  eyes  turned.  Thomas,  who  had  not  followed  his  old  asso- 
ciates into  the  Jackson  ranks,  was  out  of  it.  His  one  hope  had 
been  a  close  contest  with  many  candidates.  By  1828  Edwards 
believed  that  Kane  would  succeed  in  bringing  Reynolds,  Bond, 
and  Kinney  to  a  bargain  by  which  Smith  would  obtain  the 
honor.  Meanwhile  Edwards,  though  not  himself  avowedly 
a  candidate,  kept  himself  informed  of  the  probable  disposition 
of  candidates  for  the  legislature  in  certain  districts.  Street 
believed  Lockwood  the  only  available  candidate.  Pope  was 
anxious  to  run,  being  privately  told  by  Smith  and  his  followers 
that  he  was  their  second  choice;  but  Edwards  was  provoked 

18  Hall  to  Sloo,  June  3,  1827,  in  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transac- 
tions, 1911,  p.  41-42. 


RISE   OF   IACKSONIAN    DEMOCRACY   127 

because  Pope  was  not  supporting  Forquer  against  Duncan  for 
congress.  Accordingly  he  secretly  appealed  to  McLean,  sug- 
gesting that  he  support  Forquer,  promising  in  turn  to  support 
him  for  the  senate  even  as  against  Pope  and  warning  him  that 
the  combination  behind  Smith  was  planning  to  drive  him  out 
of  state  politics.  McLean,  however,  apparently  felt  sure  of 
his  election  and  made  no  particular  response  to  Edwards' 
overture,  except  by  answering  in  a  friendly  tone  after  Forquer's 
defeat.  He  was  elected  senator  unanimously,  but  his  election 
redounded  in  the  end  to  the  benefit  of  the  Kane  group.  Two 
years  later  Forquer  lamented  the  fact  that  Kane  by  playing 
on  McLean's  violent  likes  and  dislikes  was  able  politically  to 
do  with  the  latter  as  he  would.19 

Meanwhile  in  a  conference  of  his  political  associates  at 
Vandalia  Forquer  late  in  1827  had  been  put  forward  as  a 
candidate  for  congress  against  Joseph  Duncan.  Breese  and 
Coles  had  hoped  for  such  indorsement  from  the  group  and 
each  was  correspondingly  disappointed.  On  the  other  side, 
Kinney,  Kane,  West,  Smith,  and  Reynolds  supported  Duncan 
as  the  Jackson  candidate  against  Forquer,  who  was  avowedly 
an  Adams  man.  Forquer's  friends  tried  to  make  the  contest 
a  personal  comparison  between  the  candidates,  criticizing  Dun- 
can for  various  alleged  oversights,  blunders,  and  neglects  that 
had  hindered  the  state's  interests.  Further  they  tried  to  draw 
an  issue  between  Benton's  graduation  scheme,  reported  to  the 
house  by  Duncan,  and  a  measure  devised  by  Forquer  for  classi- 
fying public  lands  according  to  value,  at  one  dollar,  seventy- 
five  cents,  and  fifty  cents  an  acre  with  cession  of  all  lands  below 
the  latter  value  to  the  state  and  immediate  donations  to  actual 
settlers  as  compared  with  the  eight  years,  during  which  they 
would  have  to  wait  under  Benton's  bill,  after  the  land  was 
brought  into  market.  The  expense  of  valuing  the  land  was 
the  obvious  objection  to  this  measure  which  Forquer's  friends 
tried  to  explain  away.20 

19  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  343,  353,  358,  360,  477. 

20  Illinois  Intelligencer,  July  5,  12,  26,  1828;  Illinois  Gazette,  July  19,  1828; 
Forquer  to  Eddy,  December  15,  1827,  in  Eddy  manuscripts. 


ii8  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

As  contrasted  with  Edwards'  and  Cook's  campaign  of  two 
years  before,  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  democratic  and  popu- 
lar appeal  made  by  Forquer.  Against  his  opponent's  claim 
to  be  a  simple  farmer  whose  shortcomings  should  be  on  that 
account  condoned  he  set  up  the  fact  that  he  himself  had  been 
a  mechanic.  "  Forquer,  having  been  a  mechanic,"  wrote 
Edwards  to  Eddy,  "operates  like  a  charm.  .  .  .  Our  tickets 
should  be  ...  headed  with  the  figure  of  a  plow  &  plane, 
&c,  ' For  the  peoples  friend,  who,  like  them,  knows  what  it  is 
to  get  his  living  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow.'  "21  Forquer's  handi- 
caps in  other  directions,  however,  were  too  many  to  be  over- 
come thus  even  in  the  year  of  Jackson's  election.  The  admin- 
istration party  was  badly  split  between  Edwards  and  anti- 
Edwards  men,  who  had  introduced  their  factional  discords 
even  in  the  chaos  of  Adams'  election.  Forquer  lost  many 
administration  votes  and  by  his  own  account  received  no  real 
support  from  the  great  semi-independent  feudatories  of  the 
Edwards  group;  and  the  fact  that  he  was  for  Adams  was  used 
to  turn  the  Jackson  vote  against  him.  In  his  defeat  by  a  vote 
of  10,398  to  6, 1 66  Edwards  had  suffered  still  another  humili- 
ating reverse. 

The  revolution  of  factions  and  Edwards'  own  restless 
political  ambitions  were  next  to  bring  him  into  alliance  with 
John  Reynolds,  a  man  for  whom  he  had  hitherto  scarcely  con- 
cealed his  contempt.  Since  Edwards  had  rebuffed  Reynolds' 
senatorial  aspirations  in  1822-1823,  the  latter  had  gone  over 
to  the  opposition,  had  in  some  way  lost  their  support  for 
reelection  to  the  supreme  bench  in  1824-1825,  and  had  in  1826 
supported  Cook.  In  1828,  as  has  been  seen,  he  was  a  satellite 
in  the  Kane  constellation  and  had  exchanged  several  broad- 
sides of  abuse  with  Edwards.  During  the  following  session 
he  had  endeavored  to  strike  some  bargain  in  regard  to  the 
senatorship  with  both  Kinney  and  Smith  in  return  for  support 
for  governor.  Disappointed  here  he  had  turned  to  the 

21  Edwards  to  Eddy,  Election,  August,  1828,  in  Eddy  manuscripts;  Illinois 
Intelligencer,  July  12,  1828. 


Edwards  group,  and  in  spite  of  the  intention  of  the  Jackson 
following  to  proscribe  all  Adams  men,  he  had  assisted  together 
with  McLean  in  electing  Forquer  attorney-general  over 
McRoberts.22 

Immediately  after  the  legislative  session  he  began  his  cam- 
paign. "  I  must  stir  or  git  beat.  The  people  is  with  me,"  he 
wrote  to  Grant,  February  7,  1829.  Artfully  emphasizing  his 
Jackson  affiliations  he  was  nominated  later  in  the  fall  by  Jack- 
son meetings.  His  circular  set  him  forth  as  a  child  of  the 
people,  pitiful  to  the  poor  who  suffered  from  taxation,  and  a 
friend  to  internal  improvements  and  to  a  speedy  distribution  of 
the  school  fund  for  the  benefit  of  the  children  then  growing  up 
in  ignorance.  So  large  were  his  promises  that  one  irrev- 
erent critic  suggested  that,  after  promising  internal  improve- 
ments and  lighter  taxation  to  boot,  it  only  remained  to  engage 
that  the  Mississippi  run  upstream  one  half  the  year  and 
downstream  the  other  for  the  special  benefit  of  the  river 
trade.23 

By  this  time  Reynolds  had  made  his  formal  peace  with 
Edwards,  predicating  his  overtures  on  the  practical  ground 
that  they  had  many  friends  in  common  and  on  the  ideal  one 
that  it  was  necessary  to  unite  to  procure  the  good  of  the  people. 
He  again  offered  the  senatorship  bargain  in  general  terms. 
Edwards  in  reply  somewhat  condescendingly  accepted  his 
overtures,  stipulating  that  he  have  an  authoritative  voice  in 
drawing  the  plan  of  the  gubernatorial  campaign  —  apparently 
planning  to  bring  in  his  public  land  doctrines  on  Reynolds' 
shoulders  to  prepare  for  his  own  future  political  success  with 
them. 

The  characters  of  John  Reynolds  and  William  Kinney,  the 
two  men  who  confronted  each  other  as  rivals  in  the  race  for 
the  governorship,  are  an  interesting  contrast.  John  Reynolds, 
by  virtue  of  a  certain  kindliness  of  spirit  and  a  degree  of  cun- 

22  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  9,  February  20,  June  12,  July  10,  24,  1830; 
Illinois  Gazette,  January  17,  December  12,  1829. 

23  Galena  Advertiser,   November   9,    30,    December    28,    1829,   January   n, 
February  15,  1830. 


130  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

ning,  was  to  shuffle  his  way  through  Illinois  politics,  getting 
much  of  what  he  wanted.  He  had  been  brought  up  in  pioneer 
Illinois,  had  seen  some  ranger  service  in  the  War  of  1812, 
and  apparently  in  imitation  of  Edwards  had  adopted  as  a 
political  asset  the  sobriquet  of  "  The  Old  Ranger."  He  had 
had  a  narrow  schooling  in  a  primitive  Tennessee  academy 
termed  by  courtesy  a  college  and  had  acquired  some  small 
classical  learning  which  in  certain  circles  he  took  care  to  dis- 
play. Toward  the  end  of  his  life  he  tried  to  carry  on  a  learned 
correspondence  with  Joseph  Gillespie,  and  at  the  end  of  a 
sophomoric  composition  on  the  traitor  Count  Julian  and  the 
ruin  of  the  Visigothic  kingdom,  he  begs  his  correspondent  to 
write  him  his  views  on  the  pyramids  of  Egypt!  The  books 
which  he  wrote  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life  confirm  the  con- 
temporary tradition  of  his  mental  slovenliness.  His  discourse 
couched  in  the  shambling  phrases  of  the  pliant  demagogue, 
while  not  ungrammatical,  is  strikingly  unidiomatic.  When  he 
endeavored  to  cover  his  meanness  of  spirit  with  dignified  or 
distant  phrases,  he  is  a  pantaloon  peeping  from  behind  his 
mask.  In  politics,  even  in  his  seeking  for  office,  he  affected  a 
transparent  reserve.  "  I  am  in  the  hands  of  my  friends,"  was 
his  favorite  phrase.  Aided  by  his  ability  to  avoid  committing 
himself  he  pushed  his  way  by  means  of  factional  politics, 
never  hesitating  to  abandon  old  friends  whom  he  no  longer 
needed  till  at  length  in  an  age  of  sharply  defined  parties  he 
discovered  that  the  older  political  methods  would  no  longer 
serve. 

Kinney  was  the  antithesis  of  Reynolds.  He  too  was  a 
product  of  frontier  Illinois  and  had  attained  prosperity  as  a 
storekeeper.  In  that  day  his  business  did  not  seem  incongruous 
with  his  calling  as  a  Baptist  minister.  Hot-tempered, 
vehement,  a  good  hater,  a  keen  and  open  seeker  for  office,  he 
exhibited  in  politics  few  of  the  conventional  ministerial  traits. 
He  was  far  more  straightforward,  far  more  loyal  to  his 
friends  than  Reynolds.  He  was  almost  completely  illiterate, 
but  except  in  having  his  political  addresses  written  for  him, 


RISE   OF  JACKSONIAN   DEMOCRACY   131 

he  made  no  effort  to  conceal  the  fact.  His  keen  mother-wit 
was  the  source  of  a  long  series  of  shrewd  characterizations  of 
men  and  events,  couched  in  rustic  metaphor  which  often  rises 
to  the  height  of  epigram.  Genuinely  trained  in  the  world's 
culture  he  would  have  been  the  most  remarkable  man  in  the 
Illinois  of  his  day. 

Reynolds'  plan  of  campaign  was  what  might  have  been 
expected.  He  urged  his  friends  to  emphasize  the  contrast 
marked  by  his  service  as  a  ranger  while  Kinney  stayed  at  home 
and  speculated,  until  it  was  discovered  that  such  comparisons 
called  out  derogatory  comments  on  his  own  military  services. 
In  the  neighborhood  of  the  saline  he  saw  to  it  that  his  policy 
of  low  saline  rents  to  encourage  large  production  was  empha- 
sized. He  suggested  that  Kinney  and  the  Reverend  Zadoc 
Casey,  candidate  for  lieutenant  governor,  be  decried  as  minis- 
ters of  the  gospel  who  meddled  with  politics;  he  repeated  the 
story  that  Jackson,  solicited  by  Kinney  for  an  office,  told  the 
latter  that  as  a  preacher  he  had  an  employment  higher  than 
any  the  president  could  confer  and  one  which  should  demand 
his  full  attention.  The  tale  was  made  to  do  duty  in  spite  of 
Kinney's  denial  of  its  truth.  In  the  attacks  on  Kinney  directed 
by  Edwards,  Kinney's  record  on  the  state  bank  received  impor- 
tant attention ;  and  toward  the  end  of  the  campaign  Edwards 
insisted  that  it  was  necessary  to  inject  the  subject  of  the  public 
lands  more  forcibly  into  the  contest.  Finally,  as  a  last  resort 
to  remedy  a  "  strange  defection "  among  the  Methodists, 
Edwards  played  on  their  old  distrust  of  Kinney  as  a  slavery 
advocate.24 

The  contest  witnessed  a  use  of  the  press  by  both  sides  to  an 
extent  previously  unknown  in  state  politics.  Of  the  older 
papers,  the  Illinois  Intelligencer  under  James  Hall's  editorship 
was  frankly  for  Kinney  on  personal  grounds,  as  Hall  was  an 
Adams  man  of  1828.  Hall  accordingly  drew  on  himself  much 

**  Reynolds  to  Eddy,  July  13,  1830,  Reynolds  to  Grant,  June  i,  1830,  in 
Eddy  manuscripts;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  April  3,  10,  17,  1830;  Illinois  Gazette, 
March  6,  April  17,  1830;  Edwards  to  Cyrus  and  B.  F.  Edwards,  July  15,  1830, 
in  Edwards  manuscripts. 


132  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

abuse  ranging  from  charges  that  he  was  a  bankrupt  and  a 
defaulter  to  ridicule  of  his  publication,  the  Western  Souvenir** 

The  Illinois  Gazette  edited  by  A.  F.  Grant  supported 
Reynolds;  R.  K.  Fleming,  who  had  edited  a  Jackson  paper  in 
1828  but  had  been  defeated  for  election  as  state  printer,  was 
employed  under  Breese's  direction  to  print  a  Reynolds  paper, 
the  Western  or  Kaskaskia  Democrat.  Hooper  Warren  who 
had  edited  the  Sangamo  Spectator  in  Edwards'  interest  at 
Springfield  moved  to  Galena  and  on  July  20,  1829,  began  the 
publication  of  the  Galena  Advertiser.  The  Miner's  Journal 
already  in  existence  there  finally  threw  its  support  to  Kinney. 
At  Springfield,  S.  C.  Meredith  in  1829  set  up  a  Kinney  paper 
directed  by  McRoberts,  which  Forquer  vainly  tried  to  capture 
under  the  noses  of  the  opposition  by  inducements  to  Meredith. 
In  the  winter  of  the  same  year  Forquer  established  the  Courier 
there,  ostensibly  as  a  Jackson  paper.26 

That  an  Adams  man  should  edit  even  secretly  in  Reynolds' 
interest  a  Jackson  paper  was  an  illustration  of  the  anarchy, 
from  the  view  of  national  politics,  implicit  in  the  factional 
alliance  between  the  friends  of  Reynolds  and  Edwards.  Old 
Jackson  men  in  the  Reynolds  ranks,  like  S.  H.  Kimmel, 
McLean,  and  even  Reynolds  himself,  had  to  urge  the  Adams 
men  in  the  Edwards  group  either  to  refrain  from  attacks  on 
Jackson  or  to  say  openly  as  little  as  might  be  on  behalf  of 
Reynolds.  The  Jackson  contingent  in  the  Reynolds  party  took 
the  position  that  they  were  good  Jackson  men,  often  older  and 
truer  supporters  of  the  Old  Hero  than  were  the  new  converts, 
and  in  no  wise  worthy  of  being  read  out  of  the  party  because 
they  deprecated  the  proscription  of  Adams  men  in  state  politics 
or  because  they  had  not,  like  Kinney,  been  fortunate  enough  to 
gain  the  president's  ear  by  misrepresentation.27 

25  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  9,  1830;  Galena  Advertiser,  July  27,  1829, 
January  25,  March  29,  1830. 

26  Illinois  Intelligencer,  February  6,  20,  April  3,  September  29,  1830;  Flem- 
ing to  Kane,  September  29,  1828,  in  Kane  manuscripts;  Washburne,  Edwards 
Papers,  467. 

2T  Kimmel  to  Grant,  October  29,  1829,  McLean  to  Grant,  December  18, 
1829,  in  Eddy  manuscripts;  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  432;  Illinois  Gazette, 


The  attitude  of  the  two  opposing  camps  is  better  under- 
stood in  view  of  the  fact  that  during  1829  a  hot  struggle  for 
recognition  and  support  from  Washington  had  gone  on 
between  the  two  factions.  Edwards  through  his  brother-in- 
law,  Duff  Green,  was  in  touch  with  the  Calhoun  party  there; 
and  apparently  he  was  inclined  for  a  time  to  speculate  on  par- 
ticipating, four  years  after  1828,  in  a  contest  in  which  Calhoun 
and  Van  Buren  would  be  the  contestants;  but  Duff  Green 
warned  him  that  Jackson  would  almost  certainly  be  a  candidate 
for  reelection.  In  May  Green  assured  him  that  Jackson  at 
length  understood  the  state  of  parties  in  Illinois  and  was 
resolved  to  sustain  Edwards  and  his  friends.  With  this  proof 
of  Jackson's  friendship  to  Edwards  it  is  interesting  to  compare 
a  letter  of  Hooper  Warren  of  July  6,  asking  Edwards  whether 
he  wished  the  Advertiser  to  support  Jackson  in  the  new  views 
of  proscription  and  of  opposition  to  the  American  system  that 
had  developed  since  Warren's  last  conference  with  Edwards. 
In  Washington,  Kinney  with  the  aid  of  Kane  and  Duncan  suc- 
ceeded during  the  summer  in  persuading  Jackson  to  recognize 
them  in  appointments.  For  the  time  Edwards'  representative, 
Duff  Green,  believed  that  he  had  undeceived  Jackson;  but  in 
November  he  had  to  admit  that  Duncan's  influence  with 
Samuel  D.  Ingham  had  prevailed  against  Edwards'  candidates. 
Three  months  before  Ingham  had  warned  S.  H.  Kimmel  that 
the  administration  would  recognize  no  Jackson  faction  that 
had  formed  a  coalition  with  Adams  men.  For  the  time  Kinney 
appeared  to  have  the  indorsement  of  Washington.28 

In  the  background  of  the  Kinney-Reynolds  contest  were 
Edwards'  perennial  ambitions  for  election  to  the  senate. 
Green  had  already  pointed  out  to  him  that,  if  he  came  into 
the  senate  on  his  doctrine  of  the  right  of  the  state  to  the  public 
lands,  it  might  well  be  the  ground  of  an  alliance  of  the  west 

February  16,  1828,  December  5,  26,  1829,  April  3,  1830;  Illinois  Intelligencer, 
May  17,  October  4,  1828.  To  impeach  Reynolds'  Jacksonism,  the  point  was 
raised  that  Cook,  whom  he  had  supported  in  1826,  had  been  beaten  because  of 
his  Adams  vote.  Illinois  Intelligencer,  May  22,  1830. 

28Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  379,  399,  427,  450;  Ingham  to  Kinney, 
August  i,  1829,  in  Eddy  manuscripts. 


i34  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

and  Calhoun's  friends  in  the  south  against  the  east.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  campaign  Edwards  brought  the  land  issue  into 
the  gubernatorial  election.  The  opposition  had  already 
revived  the  old  story  of  Edwards'  land  speculations,  and  now 
they  opened  up  on  him  in  full  cry,  maintaining  that  his  measure 
was  designed  to  advance  his  own  pecuniary  interest  by  frus- 
trating the  west's  hope  of  obtaining  by  moderate  demands  a 
reasonable  measure  of  relief.  Kinney  pronounced  against 
state  ownership  on  the  ground  that  the  legislation  would  allow 
the  public  domain  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  wealthy  specu- 
lators.29 

Forquer  was  afraid  that  the  intrusion  of  Edwards'  sena- 
torial ambitions  into  the  election  would  result  in  Reynolds' 
defeat.  He  impressed  upon  Edwards  his  belief  that  if  he 
appeared  as  an  open  contestant  the  forces  of  Kane,  Duncan, 
and  Kinney  would  coalesce  and  bring  about  Reynolds'  over- 
throw and  that  the  opposition  was  trying  to  drag  Edwards  into 
the  campaign  with  that  end  in  view.  Edwards'  friends  had 
met  the  charges  of  a  bargain  with  Reynolds  by  assertions  that 
Edwards  was  not  a  candidate  for  the  senatorship;  but 
Edwards,  stung  by  an  anonymous  attack  by  Kane,  prepared  an 
address  to  the  people  expressing  a  willingness  to  enter  into  a 
contest  with  his  antagonist.  Forquer  advised  against  its  pub- 
lication, however,  until  Edwards  should  have  been  openly 
attacked  by  J.  M.  Duncan,  lest  its  premature  appearance  would 
mean  defeat  for  both  Reynolds  and  Edwards. 

But  the  chief  political  factor  in  the  campaign  proved  to 
be  Reynolds'  own  personality;  his  election  was  a  triumph  for 
his  policy  of  cautious  campaigning  designed  to  alienate  as  few 
voters  as  possible.  Further,  it  meant  a  passing  triumph  of 
the  older  factional  school  of  politics  over  the  tendency  to  wage 
local  elections  on  national  issues.  After  his  election,  the 
governor  prepared  for  publication  in  the  newspapers  an 
unsigned  leader  announcing  that  his  policy  would  be  one  of 

29  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  379,  427,  494;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  June 
12,  1830;  Illinois  Gazette,  June  12,  1830;  Jones  to  Browne,  June  25,  1830,  in 
Eddy  manuscripts. 


RISE   OF  JACKSONIAN   DEMOCRACY   135 

moderation  and  not  proscription.  Reynolds,  temporizing  suc- 
cessfully with  Jacksonism,  had  gained  the  full  advantage  to  be 
derived  both  from  anti-Jackson  voters  and  from  factional 
alliances.  The  conquest  of  Illinois  politics  by  the  Jackson 
party  was  delayed,  but  it  was  inevitable. 


VII.     STATE  POLITICS,  1830-1834 

THE  course  of  Illinois  politics  between  the  years  1818 
and  1836  may  stand  as  a  warning  to  the  superficial  his- 
torian of  the  danger  which  attends  an  attempt  to  describe  and 
classify  political  parties  at  different  periods  by  the  same  terms 
or  under  the  same  categories.  Not  only  is  there  danger  of  falling 
into  the  comparatively  obvious  error  of  using  at  too  early  a  stage 
the  terms  whig  and  democrat  but  also  the  danger,  less  appar- 
ent, of  attempting  to  explain  state  politics  exclusively  in  terms 
of  national  issues  and  leaders.  The  cautious  student  must 
recognize  the  fact  that  state  factions  differed  from  period  to 
period,  not  only  in  alignment  and  personnel  but  in  degrees  of 
unity  and  cohesiveness.  Thus  till  1826  it  is  easiest  to  explain 
Illinois  politics  in  terms  of  two  local  factions.  By  1830  it 
becomes  difficult  to  use  this  classification  and  after  1830  it  is 
impossible.  For  three  or  four  years  after  that  date  it  is  neces- 
sary to  describe  politics  in  terms  of  individual  cliques  and 
followings,  which  at  first  used  Jackson's  name  and  then  his 
measures  as  issues  with  which  to  embarrass  their  opponents. 
Only  by  degrees  did  the  outlines  of  what  are  truly  national 
parties  emerge  from  the  confusion. 

The  decay  of  the  factional  system  in  Illinois  politics  is  illus- 
trated in  a  series  of  letters  from  George  Forquer  in  1830 
which  when  analyzed  are  an  illuminating  commentary  on  the 
political  conditions  of  the  time.  To  Forquer  the  successful 
management  of  a  campaign  meant  the  bringing  to  bear  in  favor 
of  his  candidate  all  influences  and  groups  in  any  way  obligated 
to  him  and  the  keeping  neutral  of  as  many  other  groups  and 
influences  as  possible.  "We  must  make  Wilson  and  Lock- 
wood  and  their  friends  fight  with  us.  They  shall  not  be  indif- 
ferent any  longer,  and  hold  themselves  like  Pope,  ready  to  dine 

136 


STATE   POLITICS,    1830—1834  137 

with  our  enemies  whilst  our  slain  carcasses  are  yet  bleeding. 
Embroil  every  man  of  them  in  the  contest.  .  .  .  Could  you 
write  without  attacking  Kane,  would  it  not  be  better?  If  you 
can  whip  his  forces  by  killing  off  his  generals,  is  it  not  the 
safest  way  to  whip  him  too  ?  Fix  it  so  as  to  force  him  to  attack 
as  Duncan  has  done.  They  intend  to  have  him  in  the  scales. 
Give  him  no  excuse  to  say  he  has  been  dragged  into  it.  They 
will  drag  him  in."1  In  urging  Edwards  against  openly  chal- 
lenging Kane  to  a  contest  for  the  senate,  he  wrote  "Every 
man  here  when  pushed  for  his  real  sentiments  believes  that 
Kinney  is  quite  enough  for  us  at  one  time.  All  agree  that  Kane 
and  him  at  once  against  you  and  Reynolds  and  we  are  gone."2 

The  conditions  in  the  Edwards  faction  made  apparent  by 
these  letters  were  significant  of  the  change  that  was  taking 
place  in  it.  The  minor  cliques  of  the  older  party,  surrounding 
Samuel  D.  Lockwood,  Thomas  Mather,  and  William  Wilson, 
secure  in  the  spoils  of  past  contests  were  slow  to  risk  themselves 
in  battle  at  the  call  of  their  old  leader.  T.  W.  Smith  and 
Breese  soon  drifted  away  into  independence.  Outside  the  old 
Edwards  ranks,  Kane,  Kinney,  the  Duncans,  and  Reynolds  had 
each  his  little  following,  or  rather  a  circle  on  which  he  was  able 
to  exert  influence.  The  practical  politicians  counted  on  com- 
binations of  these  cliques  and  influences  rather  than  on  the 
shadows  of  the  two  old  factions.  The  times  were  ripe  for  the 
intrusion  into  politics  of  new  rallying  cries  of  wider  appeal 
than  personal  popularity  and  for  the  creation  of  new  parties. 
These  came  to  pass  through  the  introduction  of  national  issues 
into  state  politics  and  of  resulting  national  party  divisions. 

The  disintegration  of  both  factions  is  strikingly  illustrated 
in  the  senatorial  election  of  1830.  Kane  and  Kinney  probably 
maintained  something  more  than  a  benevolent  neutrality 
toward  each  other  on  the  governorship  and  senatorship.  The 
death  of  McLean,  however,  left  both  senatorships  vacant  and 
caused  Wilson,  T.  W.  Smith,  R.  M.  Young,  and  others  to 
enter  the  field  each  with  his  personal  following.  Reynolds  was 

1  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  519-520.  -Ibid.,  516-517. 


138  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

thought  to  favor  a  coalition  between  Wilson  and  Young.  Wil- 
liam L.  May,  a  member  of  the  Springfield  clique,  suggested  a 
coalition  between  Kane  and  Smith.  The  final  result  was  the 
choice  of  Kane  and  John  M.  Robinson,  a  man  from  eastern 
Illinois  of  whom  little  is  known  at  this  time  except  that  he  was 
probably  opposed  to  Kane.  But  while  William  C.  Greenup 
gleefully  announced  to  Kane  that  the  Edwards  forces  were 
disintegrating  so  fast  that  both  Edwards  and  Reynolds  had 
offered  to  sign  a  recommendation  for  Kinney  to  be  governor 
of  Huron  territory,  Kane  was  apparently  meditating  a  realign- 
ment D.  J.  Baker  believed  that  he  had  made  tentative  ad- 
vances through  him  to  Edwards.  In  January,  1831,  Kane 
offered  to  support  Edwards  for  congress  in  preference  to 
Duncan.  Duff  Green  through  whom  the  offer  was  made  be- 
lieved that  Edwards  might  in  this  way  attain  the  leadership  of 
the  Illinois  delegation.3 

The  secret  of  Kane's  vacillation  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in 
the  situation  in  national  politics.  As  it  reacted  on  the  state  it 
appeared  primarily  as  a  sheaf  of  personal  rivalries.  The 
Jackson  party  was  split  up  into  cliques.  The  power  of  Cal- 
houn  and  of  his  mouthpiece,  Duff  Green  of  the  Telegraph  — 
still  the  official  newspaper  of  the  party — was  waning.  Cal- 
houn  was  not  the  only  aspirant  for  the  power  of  Jackson  when 
the  Old  Hero  should  be  ready  to  relinquish  it.  Those  who  had 
formerly  supported  Crawford  were  now  wavering  between 
their  allegiance  to  their  former  leader  or  to  Van  Buren.  Kane's 
position  was  still  uncertain,  and  even  in  1831  Duff  Green  be- 
lieved that  Edwards  might  influence  the  whole  Illinois  delega- 
tion for  Calhoun.4 

3Rountree  to  Kane,  February  15,  1830,  Prentice  to  Kane,  January  31, 
1830,  James  M.  Duncan  to  Kane,  February  25,  1830,  McRoberts  to  Kane, 
March  12,  1830,  Greenup  to  Kane,  November  3,  1830,  May  to  Kane,  October 
21,  1830,  D.  Turney  to  Kane,  October  15,  1830,  in  Kane  manuscripts;  Eddy  to 
Grant,  December  9-10,  1830,  Breese  to  Browne,  September  14,  1830,  in  Eddy 
manuscripts;  Washburne,  Edioards  Papers,  557,  569. 

*  Edwards'  information  came  partly  through  Duff  Green,  who  believed 
Jackson  would  not  run.  Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  488-489.  Green  wrote 
that  he  believed  Kane,  as  soon  as  he  thought  it  safe,  would  turn  on  him  in  Van 
Buren's  interest.  Ibid.,  552-554,  570. 


STATE   POLITICS,    1830—1834  139 

Edwards  was  anxiously  scanning  the  situation  in  Illinois 
which  had  become  for  a  man  of  his  type  extremely  difficult. 
His  position  was  hard  to  maintain.  For  his  strength  he  still 
had  to  rely  in  a  measure  on  Adams  and  Clay  men.  Yet  to 
oppose  the  cause  of  Jackson  openly  in  a  state  wide  canvass  was 
to  insure  defeat.  Edwards,  still  loyal  to  Calhoun,  privately 
assured  Jackson  of  his  good  will  and  desire  for  his  reelection, 
protesting  bitterly,  however,  against  the  deciding  voice  that 
Kane  and  Kinney  had  in  Illinois  appointments.  He  assured 
Jackson  that  they  were  old  Crawford  men,  that  they  were  dis- 
tributing offices  among  totally  unworthy  men  of  the  same  clique 
and  were  proscribing  the  original  Jackson  men.  He  even  tried 
to  inspire  Jackson  with  the  fear  that  they  were  plotting  the 
union  of  diverse  elements  on  Crawford  against  him,  should  he 
stand  for  a  reelection. 

In  1831  at  the  last  state  wide  election  for  a  member  of 
congress,  Edwards  had  refused  to  run;  and  Duncan  had  won 
easily  over  Field  and  Breese,  the  one  an  avowed  Jackson  man 
and  an  opponent  of  Edwards'  land  policy,  the  other  a  sup- 
porter of  that  policy,  constructively  a  Jacksonian  if  his  land- 
bill  past  were  forgotten,  but  otherwise  with  a  whiggish 
tendency. 

Edwards  was  near  the  end  of  his  career.  In  1832  with 
the  state  divided  into  congressional  districts  he  entered  the 
race  in  the  first  district  at  a  late  hour.  Charles  Dunn  and 
Breese,  the  latter  not  without  a  trace  of  bad  faith,  were  already 
in  it  along  with  Charles  Slade.  Edwards'  belated  entrance 
prevented  him  from  stumping  the  district.  Mather  deserted 
his  old  leader,  and  the  Adams  and  Clay  men  abandoned  him 
because  he  was  supporting  Jackson.  With  a  divided  vote, 
Edwards  was  defeated  by  Slade. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  opposition  to  Van  Buren,  disap- 
pointed in  Calhoun,  took  up  Richard  M.  Johnson  for  the  vice 
presidency.  As  a  western  man,  he  was  a  candidate  who  could 
be  favorably  contrasted  with  Van  Buren;  and  his  candidacy 
could  be  made  to  take  the  form  of  a  popular  protest  against 


140  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  political  management  for  which  Van  Buren  had  become 
notorious,  especially  as  it  was  exemplified  in  the  Baltimore 
convention,  which  it  was  claimed  was  a  device  to  force  on  the 
country  the  candidate  of  a  clique.  The  issue  was  sharply  joined 
at  a  Jackson  meeting  held  at  Vandalia,  January  2  and  3,  1832. 
McRoberts  and  Ewing  after  a  vain  attempt  to  adjourn  the 
meeting  sine  die  withdrew  with  their  followers;  and  Field, 
John  Dement,  and  Duncan  remained  to  direct  the  Johnson 
men.  An  address  was  drawn  up  indorsing  Johnson  and  pro- 
testing against  appointing  uninstructed  delegates  to  Baltimore. 
Reynolds  and  Edwards  lent  the  movement  their  support.  On 
March  26,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  Illinois  Advocate  tKat 
a  Johnson  indorsement  would  result  in  throwing  the  vote 
of  the  state  to  Clay,  a  Johnson  convention  met  at  Vandalia 
to  appoint  electors  pledged  to  Jackson  and  Johnson.  The 
personnel  of  the  convention  is  most  interesting.  Some  of 
the  men  in  it,  as  James  W.  Stephenson,  J.  S.  Hacker,  and 
Dr.  Early,  emerged  sound  democrats.  Others  ended  as 
whigs.5 

The  movement  as  might  have  been  expected  was  unsuccess- 
ful. The  nomination  of  Van  Buren  at  Baltimore  compelled  a 
reasonable  party  regularity.  Of  the  Johnson  electors,  three 
refused  to  serve,  but  before  the  election  an  attempt  to  reinstate 
the  ticket  was  made.  From  the  first  the  victory  of  Jackson 
and  Van  Buren  in  Illinois  was  assured.  Even  the  whigs,  while 
believing  Illinois  ready  for  a  movement  against  Jackson  and 
Van  Buren,  felt  that  Clay's  land  bill  was  too  heavy  a  load  for 
him  to  carry  in  Illinois  and  professed  it  wiser  to  support  Wirt 
or  McLean,  whom  it  was  thought  Edwards  would  support. 

With  1832  a  new  element  of  complexity  appeared  in  the 
Illinois  political  situation  which  finally  in  connection  with  the 
older  factional  alignments  and  the  personal  issues  of  1829- 
1832  caused  the  redistribution  of  partisans  into  whigs  and 
democrats.  Until  that  year,  as  nearly  as  one  can  judge,  if  a 

5  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  21,  1832.  John  M.  Robinson  was  for 
Johnson,  Robinson  to  Grant,  February  9,  1832,  in  Eddy  manuscripts;  Wash- 
burne,  Edwards  Papers,  579-580. 


STATE   POLITICS,    1830—1834  141 

candidate  was  personally  loyal  to  Jackson  the  voters  were 
inclined  to  permit  him  considerable  freedom  of  belief  on  what 
they  considered  the  minor  issues.  Tests  of  party  faith  other 
than  adherence  to  Jackson  had  not  yet  been  devised.  Thus  in 
1831  Duncan  could  avow  his  freedom  from  partisanship  on 
political  measures  and  still  be  supported  by  Jackson  men.6 
But  with  1832  and  the  years  following,  the  demand  that  not 
only  Jackson's  name  but  also  Jackson's  measures  be  adopted 
caused  a  realignment  among  the  factions. 

Till  1832  national  issues  in  general  did  not  take  a  strong 
hold  on  the  people  or  influence  seriously  the  alignment  of  fac- 
tions. With  the  Jacksonian  policy  of  the  removal  of  the 
Indians  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  settlements  the  west 
was  heartily  in  sympathy,  but  no  one  was  inclined  to  court 
defeat  by  opposing  it.  Edwards'  public  land  policy  was,  of 
course,  a  prominent  issue  in  1830,  1831,  and  1832;  but  it  was 
hardly  so  expressed  as  to  come  into  collision  with  any  nation- 
ally proposed* measure.  When  Clay  prepared  his  distribution 
measure  in  1832  even  his  friends  were  inclined  to  regard  it  as 
indefensible  in  Illinois. 

On  the  tariff  and  internal  improvements  issues,  the  Clay- 
Adams  men,  if  Breese  is  any  criterion,  were  inclined  to  push 
the  fighting.  Breese  came  out  boldly  for  protection  and 
internal  improvements  and  endeavored  to  force  that  issue 
against  his  rival,  Coles.  The  year  before  he  had  suggested  to 
Judge  Thomas  C.  Browne  that  the  Gazette  publish  an  attack 
on  Kane  for  his  support  of  the  president's  internal  improve- 
ments veto  and  possibly  as  a  result  had  drawn  from  Kane  a 
letter  hedging  on  both  the  tariff  and  internal  improvements, 
but  indicating  his  opposition  to  a  recharter.  The  newspapers 
occasionally  raised  the  tariff  question.  These  issues,  however, 
till  1832  seemed  not  only  to  create  little  division  among  the 
factions  but  also  to  have  aroused  little  interest  among  the 
people.7 

9  Illinois  Intelligencer,  July  16,  1831. 

''Ibid.,  December  4,  1830,  May  21,  September  16,  1831;  Breese  to  Grant, 
June  22,  1831,  and  Breese  to  Browne,  September  14,  1830,  in/  Eddy  manuscripts. 


i42  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

The  election  of  1832  saw  a  sharply  drawn  party  division  at 
least  so  far  as  the  Clay  element  was  concerned.  Specifically 
they  assailed  Jackson  for  his  policy  against  internal  improve- 
ments and  a  protective  tariff  and  for  the  danger  to  the  country 
and  especially  to  the  currency  of  Illinois  involved  in  his  refusal 
to  recharter  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Indeed  they  ap- 
parently thought  their  best  chance  was  to  divide  the  Jackson 
men  by  supporting  candidates  favorable  to  their  doctrinal 
position.  The  Jackson  forces  were  none  too  well  united  on 
points  of  doctrine.  The  republican  Jackson  meeting  at  Van- 
dalia,  December  14,  1831,  took  no  definite  stand  on  the  tariff 
question  but  laid  the  emphasis  on  Jackson's  opposition  to  the 
"aristocratic  doctrine"  of  vested  interest  in  office,  and  his 
distinctly  western  attitude  as  friend  to  the  settler  and  advocate 
of  Indian  removals.8 

The  issues  steadily  increased  in  national  importance  in 
the  years  following  1832.  On  the  question  of  nullification 
Illinois  had  no  doubts  whatever.  The  senate  spread  Jackson's 
proclamation  against  the  nullifiers  on  its  journals  and  ordered 
3,000  copies  of  it  printed.  Both  houses  joined  in  a  resolution 
against  the  nullifiers.  The  removal  of  the  bank  deposits 
seemed  at  the  outset  to  arouse  no  excitement  in  Illinois.  The 
Sangamo  Journal  indeed  avowed  its  belief  that  the  people  of 
southern  Illinois  gave  themselves  little  concern  about  it  and 
would  not  approve  the  call  of  a  special  session  to  charter  a 
bank.  It  avowed  also  that  the  destruction  of  the  bank  had 
been  the  issue  in  1832  and  that  Jackson  was  acting  under  a 
mandate  from  the  people,  however  ill-considered  a  one  it  might 
be.  Not  till  the  spring  of  1834  did  the  calling  of  meetings  to 
approve  or  to  protest  begin.9 

8  Sangamo  Journal,  December  8,  15,  22,  1831,  January  5,  August  2,  Sep- 
tember 22,  October  27,  1832;  for  meeting  at  Vandaha  see  Illinois  Intelligencer, 
February  18,  1832,  and  see  also  December  24,  1831.  The  Vandalia  Whig  and 
Illinois  Intelligencer  in  its  prospectus  advocated  Jackson's  reelection  but  pro- 
nounced for  the  whig  measures.  Illinois  Intelligencer,  March  3,  1832. 

•The  only  votes  against  the  first  resolution  were  cast  by  Davidson,  Forquer, 
Mather,  and  Snyder;  against  the  second  were  William  B.  Archer  and  David- 
son. Senate  Journal,  1832-1833,  i  session,  70;  Sangamo  Journal,  October  26, 
November  2,  9,  1833.  See  protest  of  Gallatin  in  Vandalia  Whig,  April  3,  1834, 


STATE   POLITICS,    1830—1834  143 

The  two  new  elements  described  above,  the  personal  rival- 
ries between  Jackson's  would-be  successors  and  the  growing 
importance  of  national  issues  based  on  his  measures,  completed 
the  breakdown  of  the  older  system  of  politics  predicated  on 
personal  loyalty  to  Jackson  and  the  older  factional  system. 
The  flux  was  not  fully  completed  for  some  years;  not  till  1836 
can  the  rearrangements  be  regarded  as  the  secessions  of  indi- 
viduals and  groups  from  one  party  to  the  other  rather  than  as 
changes  in  the  alignment  of  factions. 

The  best  known  change,  that  of  Joseph  Duncan,  came  with 
a  certain  dramatic  quality  and  may  be  stated  in  detail  both  as 
typifying  the  forces  at  work  and  as  being  the  pivot  on  which 
numerous  other  changes  occurred.  Duncan  was  certainly  con- 
sulted by  Kinney  and  Kane  about  the  appointments  by  which 
they  raised  to  power  in  Illinois  their  friends  of  the  Crawford 
following.  He  had  relied  for  his  influence  on  his  close  accord 
with  Secretary  Samuel  D.  Ingham,  a  Calhoun  man  who  fell  in 
the  cabinet  reorganization.  In  1830  the  Kane  followers  sus- 
pected Duncan's  loyalty  to  their  chief  in  the  senatorial  contest, 
and  Kane  early  in  1831  proposed  to  throw  Duncan  over  and 
support  Edwards.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  breach  between  them 
was  ever  closed.  Personal  ties  doubtless  were  drawing  Duncan 
away  from  his  earlier  alliance.  Further  he  had  maintained  a 
policy  of  independence  toward  Jackson's  measures  for  which 
in  1831  he  had  been  criticized  at  home.  He  voted  to  pass  the 
Mayville  turnpike  bill  over  Jackson's  veto.  Jackson's  veto  of 
the  Wabash  internal  improvement  measure  doubtless  irritated 
him  more  than  his  temperately  worded  letters  indicate.  Re- 
peatedly in  the  session  of  1833-1834  he  voted  against 
administration  measures.10 

Very  possibly  by  1 833  he  realized  that  he  could  no  longer 
hope  for  national  patronage  and  accordingly  prepared  to 
relinquish  his  seat  in  congress  to  seek  a  position  of  importance 
in  state  politics.  Everything  impelled  him  toward  a  change 

and  approval,  of  Hillsboro  and  Danville  in  ibid.,  February  27,  June  12,  April 
13,  1834. 

10  Congressional  Debates,  1833-1834,  p.  2182,  2207,  2375,  2627,  2739. 


144  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

of  camps,  and  by  1833  the  opposition  to  the  administration  in 
Illinois  was  prepared  to  accord  him  enthusiastic  support.  His 
candidacy  for  governor  was  announced  early  in  1833  by  the 
Vandalia  Whig,  and  the  whig  papers  began  a  policy  of  keeping 
him  before  the  public.  "  By  keeping  him  constantly  before 
them  as  an  old  public  servant,  against  whom  nothing  is  as  yet 
alleged,  and  confirming  by  an  occasional  commendation  in  the 
newspapers  the  favorable  standing  he  now  occupies,  they  will 
be  prepared  for  a  formal  annunciation  when  his  friends  think 
the  proper  time  has  come  for  it."  u  The  Jackson-Van  Buren 
party  promptly  prepared  for  war.  They  sent  an  agent  into  the 
state,  if  Duncan  is  to  be  believed,  under  pretext  of  examining 
land  offices  to  stir  up  opposition  to  him.  The  Advocate  at 
once  declared  war  on  him,  and  indicated  the  council  of  revision 
as  the  source  of  his  candidacy.  The  council  was  at  that  time 
made  up  of  Reynolds,  Wilson,  Lockwood,  and  T.  W.  Smith, 
most  of  them  till  recently  Edwards'  partisans.12  The  Jackson- 
Van  Buren  party  began  to  canvass  the  list  of  available  men  to 
oppose  him.  First  Berry  was  suggested,  then  Ewing;  finally, 
November  27,  the  name  of  R.  K.  McLaughlin,  Duncan's  uncle, 
was  proposed  by  a  Coles  county  convention.  A  month  later  a 
Belleville  meeting  brought  out  Kinney — and  on  him  the  sup- 
port of  the  Jacksonian  or  Van  Buren  party  finally  centered.13 
Duncan  by  no  means  received  the  undivided  support  of  the 
whig  papers.  For  some  reason  the  Sangamo  Journal  opposed 
his  candidacy  with  asperity.  It  was  accused  by  the  Shawnee- 
town  Journal  of  having  been  bought  up  by  Slade  and  Kane 
with  the  federal  printing  to  support  Van  Buren  and  oppose 
Duncan.14  The  Sangamo  Journal  had  previously  denounced 

11  Grant  to  Dement,  June  26,  1833,  in  Eddy  manuscripts;  Sangamo  Journal, 
February  9,  1833 ;  Illinois  Advocate,  February  2,  1833. 

12  In  February  it  was  supposed  that  A.  P.  Field  was  grooming  Richard  M. 
Young  for  the  race.     Grant  to  Reynolds,  February  6,   1834  and  Reynolds  to 
Grant,  February  10,  1834,  in  Eddy  manuscripts. 

13  The  Sangamo  Journal,  March  30,  1833,  denied  Swing's  candidacy,  and  in 
the  January  25,   1834  issue,  expressed  the  opinion  that  Duncan  would  not  run 
against  his  uncle.     See  also  Illinois  Advocate,  December  7,  1833. 

14  Shavmeeto<um  Journal  clipping  in   Vandalia  Whig,  April  3,   1834.     The 
Alton  American  was  inclined  to  believe  the  charge,  see  issue  of  April   14,  1834. 


STATE   POLITICS,    1830—1834  145 

the  Banner  and  the  Patriot  of  Jacksonville  for  having  per- 
mitted themselves  to  be  influenced  to  suppress  charges  against 
Duncan's  financial  integrity.  It  charged  the  existence  of  a 
Jacksonville  regency  headed  by  Duncan  which  sheltered  itself 
under  Jackson's  name  though  it  was  opposed  to  his  principles. 
It  countered  the  charges  of  the  Vandalia  Whig  by  the  insinua- 
tion that  Duncan  had  bought  it  to  his  support  with  a  promise 
of  the  state  printing,  and  by  slurs  on  its  opposition  to  Jackson. 
Certainly  its  opposition  could  not  have  taken  a  form  more  em- 
barrassing to  Duncan.16 

In  the  spring  of  1834  the  Sangamo  Journal  gave  enthusi- 
astic support  to  the  candidacy  of  General  James  D.  Henry, 
the  Illinois  hero  of  the  Black  Hawk  War.  It  is  difficult  to 
estimate  exactly  what  was  behind  this  movement.  Henry  was 
extolled  as  a  man  independent  of  party  and  as  a  mechanic;  he 
was  nominated  by  a  series  of  county  meetings,  but  the  hopes 
of  his  supporters  were  destroyed  by  his  sickness  and  death  in 
the  spring  of  1834.  Thereafter  the  Sangamo  Journal  inclined 
to  the  support  of  R.  K.  McLaughlin. 

Of  the  four  candidates  McLaughlin  offered  his  record  as 
state  treasurer  and  his  former  unflinching  opposition  to  the 
state  bank.  James  Adams'  position  in  the  campaign  is  not  so 
clear;  he  was  perennially  a  candidate  and  always  an  unsuccess- 
ful one.  In  spite  of  his  later  democratic  affiliations  the  Chicago 
Democrat  affected  to  believe  that  General  Adams  would  be 
elected  by  the  votes  of  the  old  Adams  men,  the  stalwart  Jackson 
votes  being  split  between  Kinney  and  McLaughlin  and  the 
"milk  and  cider"  votes  going  to  Duncan.  Kinney  based  his 
hopes  of  office  on  his  personality,  his  friends  alleging  that  his 
errors  were  of  the  head  and  not  of  the  heart.  He  was  senti- 
mentally pictured  as  a  farmer  and  as  a  democrat  in  personal 
habits.  The  attacks  he  found  it  necessary  to  meet  were  mostly 
on  his  opposition  to  the  canal  and  on  his  connection  with  the 
state  bank.  To  the  first  charge  the  answer  of  his  followers 
was  a  straight  denial ;  to  the  second  the  claim  that  the  Edwards- 

18  Sangamo  Journal,  February  i,  April  19,  1834. 


146  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

ville  branch  of  the  state  bank  with  which  he  had  been  connected 
had  really  given  relief  to  the  public  and  had  lost  the  state 
nothing.  For  the  rest  he  relied  on  his  undoubted  allegiance 
to  Jacksonism.16 

Duncan  of  course  had  to  stand  or  fall  by  his  congressional 
record,  so  far  as  the  voters  understood  it.  The  Chicago  Demo- 
crat and  the  Illinois  Advocate,  assailing  him  as  a  deserter  from 
Jacksonism,  singled  out  his  proposal  for  a  bank  and  his  other 
anti-administration  votes.  The  Alton  Spectator  answered  that 
he  had  stood  firmly  for  his  principles  from  the  beginning  on 
both  internal  improvements  and  the  bank  —  it  was  Jackson 
who  had  departed  from  his.  At  a  later  time  Duncan  claimed 
that  he  had  never,  since  1830,  used  Jackson's  name  to  carry 
his  elections,  being  convinced  that  Jackson,  his  mind  weakened 
by  grief  at  the  death  of  his  wife,  had  been  persuaded  to  drop 
his  own  principles  and  adopt  Van  Buren's.17  Considering  the 
political  conditions  in  1834  it  is  hard  to  see  how  any  but  the 
ignorant  could  have  failed  to  see  that  Duncan  was  no  longer 
in  harmony  with  the  federal  administration.  Possibly  the  lack 
of  a  specific  renunciation  of  Jacksonism  caused  it  to  be  taken  for 
granted  that  he  still  made  formal  profession  of  faith.  In  1834 
that  was  still  considered  sufficient. 

After  the  election,  however,  in  spite  of  a  few  attempts  by 
Jackson  papers  to  regard  his  election  as  a  Jackson  success, 
there  could  be  no  doubt  of  his  position.  The  Sangamo  Journal 
judging  him  on  his  congressional  record  pronounced  him  an 
opposition  man;  an  anti-administration  toast  proposed  by  him 
at  a  dinner  after  his  election  should  have  left  no  doubt  of  it; 
and  the  Jackson  papers  generally  took  the  fact  of  his  apostasy 
for  granted.18 

18 Alton  American,  April  14,  June  2,  1834;  Chicago  Democrat,  July  23, 
1834;  Illinois  Advocate,  April  19,  1834;  Alton  Spectator,  February  n,  April 
17,  1834.  The  Alton  Spectator  pointed  out  that  both  Kinney  and  Van  Buren 
were  hostile  to  the  canal,  June  5,  1834. 

17  Chicago  Democrat,  March  4,  May  21,  July  2,  23,  1834;  Alton  Spectator, 
July  i,  1834;  letter  in  the  Sangamo  Journal,  February  4,  1837. 

18  Chicago  Democrat,  August  27,  September  17,  November  12,   1834;  San- 
gamo Journal,  August  30,  October  4,  18,  December  6,  1834. 


STATE   POLITICS,    1830—1834  147 

The  story  is  told  on  doubtful  authority  that  as  Duncan  was 
proceeding  to  Illinois  to  take  his  place  as  governor,  he  met 
Reynolds,  then  newly  elected  to  congress ;  and  after  comment- 
ing on  their  exchange  of  offices,  he  was  told  by  Reynolds  that 
they  were  likewise  changing  political  alignment,  Duncan  going 
over  to  the  whig  opposition  while  he  himself  had  elected  to 
stay  by  Old  Hickory.  Whether  authentic  or  not^the  story 
shows  an  acute  grasp  of  the  political  situation  of  the  day. 
Duncan  was  passing  through  the  zone  of  doubt  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  opposition  while  Reynolds  was  traversing  it  in 
the  opposite  direction  to  a  place  in  the  Jackson-Van  Buren 
ranks. 

In  1834  in  neither  the  congressional  race  of  the  third  dis- 
trict between  William  L.  May  and  Benjamin  Mills  nor  in  that 
of  the  second  between  Casey  and  William  H.  Davidson  was  the 
anti-Jackson  line  sharply  drawn.  Mills  was  in  favor  of  R.  M. 
Johnson  for  the  succession  as  against  May  who  advocated 
leaving  the  choice  to  a  convention;  but  both  made  profession 
of  faith  in  Jackson  and  both  were  supposed  to  be  at  the  same 
time  in  favor  of  a  bank.  Similarly  in  the  second  district, 
Davidson  while  opposing  the  removal  of  the  deposits  from  the 
bank  and  favoring  its  recharter  was  occasionally  at  least  repre- 
sented as  pro-Jackson.19  But  in  the  first  district  Reynolds, 
while  running  as  avowedly  a  Jackson  man,  courted  the  aid  of 
the  same  knot  of  opposition  men  who  were  supporting  Duncan 
for  the  governorship. 

Reynolds  claimed  the  support  of  A.  F.  Grant  and  Eddy  at 
Shawneetown.  A  newspaper  edited  by  R.  W.  Clarke  was 
established  there  to  support  both  Reynolds  and  Duncan. 
Friends  of  both  men  supported  the  enterprise  by  their  subscrip- 
tions. The  race  began  as  a  three-cornered  one  between  Slade, 
Reynolds,  and  Adam  W.  Snyder,  a  partisan  of  Kinney.  Slade 
had  voted  both  for  a  recharter  and  against  a  restoration  of 
deposits,  votes  which  he  had  been  able  to  reconcile  to  his  own 

19  Chicago  Democrat,  May  7,  1834;  Alton  American,  January  30,  1834; 
S  any  a  mo  Journal,  February  8,  June  7,  1834. 


i48  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

satisfaction  by  a  process  of  casuistry  but  for  which  he  was  held 
up  to  derision  as  a  wobbler.  In  the  election,  however,  he  was 
set  down  by  his  opponents  as  opposed  to  a  bank.  The  death 
of  Slade  left  the  decision  between  Reynolds  and  Snyder.  Both 
men,  of  course,  were  avowed  Jackson  men,  but  Snyder  was  in 
favor  of  a  United  States  Bank.  His  candidacy  was  under 
especial  patronage  of  the  St.  Clair  Gazette.  Reynolds  pro- 
posed a  bizarre  scheme  for  a  new  bank  and  also  a  temporary 
recharter  of  the  old  bank.20  His  expressed  ideal  was  a  modi- 
fied United  States  Bank,  "  so  that  all  parties  will  be  satisfied."21 
Reynolds  was  elected.  As  the  death  of  Slade  and  the  resigna- 
tion of  Duncan  made  necessary  special  elections  to  fill  out  their 
unexpired  terms,  Reynolds  and  May  each  in  his  district  offered 
themselves  for  these  also  on  the  ground  that  the  additional 
terms  would  give  them  needed  experience  and  acquaintance. 
Reynolds  delayed  his  announcement  until  he  was  sure  that  men 
to  whom  he  was  under  obligation  did  not  offer  themselves  and 
then  pulled  the  wires  necessary  to  make  audible  the  voice  of 
public  opinion  soliciting  him  to  become  a  candidate.  Pierre 
Menard  became  a  candidate  for  the  unexpired  term  in 
Reynolds'  district,  and  Pope  appealed  for  support  for  him  on 
the  ground  of  his  benevolence  and  also  because  in  spite  of  his 
national  republican  affiliations  his  name  had  never  been  in- 
volved in  the  Jackson  and  anti-Jackson  war.22  Reynolds  pro- 
tested that  the  only  result  of  Menard's  entrance  would  be  that 
a  Kinney  partisan  would  beat  him.  He  accused  Pope  of 
already  having  gone  over  to  Kinney.  This  was  true  in  so  far, 
at  least,  that  Pope  had  declined  supporting  him  and  had  taken 
up  Snyder  on  the  ground  that  Reynolds  was  "  playing  for  all 
the  pockets,"  an  art  which  indeed  was  the  alpha  and  omega  of 
the  politics  of  "John  of  Cahokia."  Again  he  asked  the  help 
of  his  Shawneetown  friends,  but  not  long  after  his  election 

20 Alton  Spectator,  April  24,  May  25,  July  15,  1834;  Shawneetoiun  Journal 
clipping  in  Vandalia  Whig,  April  24,  1834;  Eddy  to  Clarke,  April  26,  1834,  in 
Eddy  manuscripts. 

21  Reynolds  to  Eddy,  February  17,  1834,  in  Eddy  manuscripts. 

22  "  It  is  hoped  that  his  name  is  a  Talisman  to  neutralise  the  senseless  noise 
about  Jackson-ism."     Pope  to  Eddy,  August  7,  1834,  'n  Eddy  manuscripts. 


STATE   POLITICS,    1830—1834  149 

perceived  the  truth  of  Pope's  warning  that  Reynolds  was  now 
"  Ultra-Jackson  and  Anti-Bank."23 

The  process  of  political  disintegration  in  Illinois  had 
reached  its  height.  Personal  jealousies  and  factional  rivalries, 
personal  adherences  to  Jackson,  Van  Buren,  Johnson,  and  dif- 
ferences over  administration  measures  had  thrown  politics 
into  confusion.  The  changes  that  had  in  four  years  taken 
place  in  the  "  Springfield  clique  "  on  account  of  the  dominant 
Jacksonian  powers  in  the  state  can  be  traced  and  are  doubtless 
significant  of  what  was  passing  elsewhere.  In  1830  Forquer 
found  that  there  was  opposed  to  the  Edwards  faction  in  Sanga- 
mon  county  a  knot  of  men  probably  headed  by  May,  including 
A.  G.  Herndon,  E.  D.  Taylor,  and  James  Adams.  About  1 832, 
probably  disgusted  with  the  failure  of  the  Edwards  faction  to 
follow  their  leader,  Forquer  accepted  the  support  of  the  clique 
for  the  state  senate.  Two  years  later  he  succeeded  May  as 
register  at  Springfield  when  the  latter  resigned  that  office,  to 
which  he  had  been  appointed  through  Kane's  influence,  to  enter 
congress.  It  was  later  charged  by  the  whigs  that  this  was  all  a 
deliberate  bargain,  by  which  Forquer  had  sold  himself;  and 
it  was  also  said  that  Peter  Cartwright  had  made  a  bargain 
to  support  Duncan,  the  report  alleging  that  John  Calhoun, 
said  to  be  another  old  opposition  man,  had  bought  him  up  by 
the  promise  of  a  surveyor  generalship.  In  1837-1838  the 
clique,  headed  as  it  was  supposed  by  Forquer,  read  May  but 
of  the  party  altogether.  Herndon,  in  1835,  disappointed  of 
an  office,  was  said  to  have  joined  the  opposition.24  Out  of 
such  personal  rivalries  and  alliances  cemented  by  national  issues 
and  national  party  allegiances  was  to  arise  a  new  political 
organization  in  Illinois  based  on  broad  and  fundamental 
differences. 

23  Pope  to  Eddy,  September  23,  1834,  in  Eddy  manuscripts. 

24  Sangamo  Journal,   May  2,   1835,   February  6,   13,  June   18,  July   16,   30, 
1836;   Chicago  Democrat,  August  12,   1835.     Apparently  a  letter  from  May  to 
Duncan  existed  as  proof  of  the  charge  that  Cartwright  had  made  a  bargain 
to  support  Duncan. 


VIII.     THE  LAST  OF  THE  INDIANS 

ILLINOIS  in  1830  presented  that  sharp  dualism  of  devel- 
opment common  to  frontier  societies.  A  small  group  of 
talented  lawyers  and  jurists  questing  fortune  in  the  west  had 
brought  with  them  the  intellectual  outlook  of  eastern  cities; 
the  towns  of  Illinois  buzzed  with  political  life.  Affairs  of 
state  and  nation,  however,  came  only  as  whispers  from  afar 
off  to  the  pioneer  who,  pushing  out  farther  and  farther  from 
the  tiny  urban  centers  of  the  state,  must  single-handed  win  a 
home  from  forest  wilds.  He  had,  by  this  time,  satisfied  his 
most  primitive  wants.  The  replacement  of  the  coonskin  cap 
and  leather  breeches  by  store  hat  and  homespun  suit  indicated 
the  degree  to  which  all  material  comforts  had  advanced ;  cabins 
were  more  substantial,  clearings  a  little  more  extensive,  settle- 
ments larger  and  closer  together.  Opportunities  for  mental 
and  social  development  were  still  excessively  meager.  This 
poverty  the  pioneer  felt  keenly,  if  inarticulately;  but  at  best  he 
could  enrich  his  life  very  slightly.  A  political  campaign  — 
with  its  sharp  personal  interests,  its  clashes,  its  victories,  its 
eager  seeking  and  jovial  solicitation  of  the  voter — formed  a 
spot  of  vivid  color  in  the  drab  months  of  the  year.  For  the 
rest,  the  annual  wolf-hunt,  the  house  raising,  the  revival  meet- 
ing must  afford  stimulus  and  diversion.  Any  news,  any  excite- 
ment, was  welcomed.  A  wedding  was  an  event  seized  upon 
and  celebrated  by  the  countryside  for  twenty-four  hours;  the 
report  of  a  murder,  the  trial  of  a  criminal  was  sufficient  to 
draw  an  avid  audience  fifty  miles.1  Events  like  these  broke,  for 
a  little,  the  isolation  of  the  frontiersman's  clearing — the  clear- 
ing that  was  but  a  hole  he  himself  had  painfully  cut  out  of  the 
malaria  infested  forest. 

1  Nicolay  and  Hay,  Abraham  Lincoln,  1:39-41. 

150 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS  151 

It  was  the  forest,  moreover,  that  concealed  somewhere  in 
its  depths  Indians  —  the  great  menace  of  the  pioneer.  To  be 
sure,  this  menace  was  connected  only  remotely  in  his  mind  with 
the  particular  redskin  who  came  begging  at  his  door,  whom 
he  chased  out  of  his  cornfields  or  pursued  after  a  raid  on  his 
hog  pen;  the  latter  was  a  creature  to  be  dealt  with  good- 
naturedly,  summarily,  or  sternly.  One  could  usually  drive  a 
good  bargain  with  him  where  peltries  and  a  little  whisky  were 
concerned.  When  "  Injuns "  was  whispered,  however,  its 
black  magic  called  up  not  the  image  of  these  improvident,  good- 
natured  creatures,  but  that  of  a  mounted  gang  of  demons,  who 
with  wild  whoops  rode  down  upon  a  cabin  "to  imbrue  their 
hands  in  the  blood  of  innocent  women  and  children." 

This  fear  had  not  for  many  years  been  fed  by  direct  expe- 
rience. As  settlements  had  thickened  in  the  land,  contact  with 
the  whites  had  broken  down  the  independence  of  savagery 
and  had  robbed  the  Indian  of  the  virility  that  had  once  made 
him  a  foe  to  be  dreaded.  Except  on  the  outer  fringes  of  set- 
tlement, knowledge  of  the  Indian  was  identical  with  the  legacy 
of  horror  tales  treasured  in  each  family.  Combined  with  this 
fear,  however,  was  hate,  engendered  by  the  War  of  1812,  that 
many  settlers  had  brought  with  them  when  they  emigrated  to 
Illinois  at  the  close  of  that  conflict.  Young,  enterprising  men, 
who  in  the  campaigns  of  the  preceding  years  had  felt  the  lure 
of  the  untouched  solitudes  along  the  Mississippi,  came  pouring 
west  to  find  a  home  on  land  that  they  felt  should  now  be  torn 
from  the  hostile  Indian.  It  was  this  great  increase  in  race 
hostility  that  brought  about  a  new  interpretation  of  Indian 
removal.2  In  response  to  it,  Illinois  extinguished  Indian  land 

2  Abel,  "  History  of  Indian  Consolidation  West  of  the  Mississippi,"  in 
Annual  Report  of  the  American  Historical  Association,  1906,  1:233-412.  Indian 
removal,  when  reduced  to  its  simplest  terms,  was  the  exchange  of  tribal  hold- 
ings within  a  state  for  unoccupied  federal  land  in  the  far  west.  Originated  by 
President  Jefferson,  the  policy  had  had  a  vacillating  and  uncertain  career  under 
succeeding  administrations.  Indian  removal  was  at  times  a  method  of  lenient 
dealing,  at  times  a  means  of  harsh  treatment  of  the  aborigines.  Gradually  it 
became  identified  with  democratic  measures,  as  involving  the  doctrine  of  states 
rights,  with  an  economic  appeal  to  south  and  west  alike.  Jackson,  with  a 
westerner's  hate  of  the  Indian,  had  influenced  Indian  affairs  since  Monroe's 
administration;  his  own  inauguration  left  no  doubt  of  the  future  meaning  of 


152 

titles  with  astonishing  rapidity;  small  nomadic  tribes  made  it 
easy  for  a  man  with  the  zeal  of  Ninian  Edwards  to  render 
vast  tracts  clear  of  Indians  far  in  advance  of  white  popula- 
tion. To  the  pioneer,  as  well  as  to  the  politician  and  land 
speculator,  Jackson's  federal  policy  of  removal  of  the  Indians 
to  some  trans-Mississippi  territory  was  a  confirmation  of  their 
own  conviction  that  the  land  belonged  to  the  white  man;  they 
welcomed  the  means  it  supplied  of  ridding  the  country  of  the 
redskin. 

Except  for  the  episode  of  the  so-called  Winnebago  War 
in  1827  which  lasted  only  long  enough  to  send  panic  through 
the  frontier,  most  Illinoisans  of  the  thirties  had  had  no  oppor- 
tunity to  express  the  peculiar  complex  of  emotions  that  made 
up  their  feeling  toward  the  aborigines.  The  Indians  were 
far  to  the  north  and  west  of  the  settlements;  for,  although 
the  population  had  by  1830  grown  to  over  157,000,  it  was 
confined  to  the  south  and  central  portions  of  the  state  along  the 
wooded  rivers  and  streams.  The  prairie  country  was  still 
almost  superstitiously  avoided,  and  it  was  only  the  discovery 
of  lead  at  Galena  which  caused  a  sudden  spurt  of  immigration 
to  cross  the  transverse  barrier  of  the  Illinois  river.  The 
whole  of  the  north  country  was  a  trackless  wilderness  except 
to  the  fur  trader  and  Indian;  even  to  them  much  of  it  was 
unknown. 

Practically  all  this  land  north  of  the  Illinois  had  been 
ceded  by  the  Sauk  and  Foxes  to  the  federal  government  in 
1804.  In  November  of  this  year  five  of  their  chiefs  and 
headmen  had  gone  to  St.  Louis  to  endeavor  to  secure  the 
release  of  a  tribesman  held  there  for  the  murder  of  a  white 
man.  It  is  possible  that  in  the  council  preceding  their  depar- 
ture, some  instruction  was  given  as  to  the  sale  of  land.  The 
Sauk  and  Foxes,  small  tribes,  held  much  more  land  than  they 
used,  and  they  were  envious  of  those  tribes  near  them  who 
were  enjoying  annuities  from  the  government.3  It  is,  however, 

Indian    removal.     With   the   passage   of   the   "  force   bill"    in    May,    1830,    he 
committed  the  government  to  forcible  removal  of  the  Indian  to  the  west. 
3  Drake,  Life  and  Adventures  of  Black  Haivk,  60. 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS  153 

a  matter  of  conjecture  only,  as  to  whether  the  tribe  had 
instructed  a  sale  of  some  sort;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  United 
States  government  has  usually  misapprehended  the  nature  of 
the  power  exercised  by  the  Indian  headmen.  They  repre- 
sented in  no  sense  a  centralized  or  autocratic  power;  what 
obedience  they  secured  in  civil  matters  was  obtained  through 
tact  and  persuasion,  and  the  proved  wisdom  of  their  advice. 
Individual  liberty  was  paramount  in  the  Indians'  scheme  of 
things ;  coercion  was  unknown  among  them.  A  majority  never 
bound  the  minority,  however  small,  to  regard  its  decision.  In 
an  evolved  Indian  government  even  Jeffersonian  democracy 
would  have  been  felt  an  irksome  restraint.  When  this  funda- 
mental attitude  of  the  Indian  is  borne  in  mind  the  difficulty  of 
making  and  keeping  any  treaty  is  evident.  In  this  instance  the 
treaty  was  negotiated  by  William  Henry  Harrison  who  became 
popular  with  westerners  for  his  success  in  securing  land  ces- 
sions; it  was  his  custom  to  deal  with  factions  and  isolated  bands 
by  methods  somewhat  unscrupulous,  though  the  practice 
was  an  invariable  trouble  breeder.4  In  this  transaction  he 
treated  with  five  chiefs,  away  from  home,  on  a  mission  which 
was,  at  least  primarily,  for  a  different  purpose;  while  these 
headmen  were  befuddled  by  fire  water,  he  concluded  a  treaty 
which,  in  return  for  an  annuity  of  one  thousand  dollars,  stripped 
the  Sauk  and  Foxes  of  fifty  million  acres  of  land.  This  land, 
though  overlapping  into  Wisconsin  and  Missouri,  formed  in 
Illinois  the  great  triangular  wedge  between  the  Mississippi  and 
Illinois  river  systems.  By  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  however, 
the  Sauk  and  Foxes  were  allowed  to  live  and  hunt  upon  the 
land  so  long  as  it  was  the  property  of  the  federal  government.5 

4Abel,  "  History  of  Indian  Consolidation  West  of  the  Mississippi,"  in 
Annual  Report  of  the  American  Historical  Association,  1906,  1:267.  Jefferson 
strongly  disapproved  of  such  methods  and  in  May,  1805,  he  ordered  Harrison 
to  make  explanations  to  certain  threatening  chiefs  and  to  "counteract  the 
effect  of  his  own  questionable  methods." 

5  Thomas  Forsythe,  agent  for  the  Sauk  and  Foxes,  and  for  this  reason 
knowing  them  better  than  any  other  white  man,  in  1832  wrote  of  this  episode: 
"The  Sauk  and  Fox  nations  were  never  consulted,  nor  had  any  hand  in  this 
treaty,  nor  knew  anything  about  it.  It  was  made  and  signed  by  two  Sauk 
chiefs,  one  Fox  chief  and  one  warrior. 


154  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

In  1816,  1822,  and  1825  the  Sauk  of  the  Rock  river  coun- 
try, without  making  any  specific  reference  to  its  substance, 
unconditionally  assented  to  and  confirmed  the  treaty  of  i8o4.6 
Black  Hawk,  a  war  chief  who  fought  with  the  British  in  the 
War  of  1812,  acknowledged  the  land  cession  when  he  finally 
signed  a  treaty  of  peace  in  1816,  athough  he  later  claimed 
that  he  was  ignorant  of  its  conditions.7 

The  great  village  which  had  for  a  hundred  years  been  the 
principal  seat  and  burying  ground  of  the  Sauk  was  on  the 
north  side  of  Rock  river  near  Rock  Island,  with  that  of  the 
Foxes  three  miles  away  on  the  Mississippi.8  Here  they  lived 
during  the  spring  and  summer  months,  while  the  women  culti- 
vated the  great  fertile  cornfields,  lying  parallel  with  the 
Mississippi.  The  crops  from  these  fields  never  failed;  year 
after  year  they  supplied  the  Indians  bountifully  with  corn, 
beans,  pumpkins,  and  squashes.  The  island  across  from  them 
was  a  garden  filled  with  strawberries,  blackberries,  plums, 
apples,  and  nuts;  and  the  river  abounded  in  fine  fish.  The 
uncultivated  land  about  the  villages  afforded  rich  pasturage 

_"When  the  annuities  were  delivered  to  the  Sauk  and  Fox  nations  of 
Indians,  according  to  the  treaty  above  referred  to  (amounting  to  $1000  per 
annum),  the  Indians  always  thought  they  were  presents  (as  the  annuity  for  the 
first  twenty  years  was  always  paid  in  goods  .  .  .  ),  until  I,  as  their  Agent, 
convinced  them  of  the  contrary,  in  the  summer  of  1818.  When  the  Indians 
heard  that  the  goods  delivered  to  them  were  annuities  for  land  sold  by  them 
to  the  United  States,  they  were  astonished,  and  refused  to  accept  of  the  goods, 
denying  that  they  ever  sold  the  lands  as  stated  by  me,  their  Agent.  The  Black 
Hawk  in  particular,  who  was  present  at  the  time,  made  a  great  noise  about  this 
land,  and  would  never  receive  any  part  of  the  annuities  from  that  time  forward. 
He  always  denied  the  authority  of  Quash-quame  and  others  to  sell  any  part  of 
their  lands,  and  told  the  Indians  not  to  receive  any  presents  or  annuities  from 
any  American  —  otherwise  their  lands  would  be  claimed  at  some  future  day." 
Printed  as  appendix  to  Mrs.  J.  H.  Kinzie,  Wau-Eun,  383;  RoyceM  Indian  Land 
Cessions  in  the  United  States,  666  and  map  16. 

0  Ibid.,  680. 

7  He  says  of  the  transaction,  "Here,  for  the  first  time,  I  touched  the  goose 
quill  to  the  treaty  —  not  knowing,  however,  that  by  that  act,  I  consented  to  give 
away  my  village.     Had  that  been  explained  to  me,  I  should  have  opposed  it, 
and  never  would  have  signed  their  treaty. 

"What  do  we  know  of  the  manner  of  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  white 
people?  They  might  buy  our  bodies  for  dissection,  and  we  would  touch  the 
goose  quill  to  confirm  it,  without  knowing  what  we  are  doing.  This  was  the 
case  with  myself  and  people  in  touching  the  goose  quill  the  first  time."  Black 
Hawk,  Autobiography,  69. 

8  The  Sauk  had  about  eight  hundred  acres  under  cultivation. 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS  155 

for  their  horses,  while  hunting  grounds  and  lead  mines  lay 
not  far  away. 

Miners  on  their  way  to  Galena  observed  this  chosen  spot, 
and  about  1823,  although  the  far  fringe  of  settlements  was 
still  fifty  miles  away,  squatters  appeared  to  give  the  Indians 
their  first  experience  of  the  white  man  as  a  neighbor.  Appar- 
ently at  the  mercy  of  the  red  men,  these  daring  forerunners 
were  quite  untouched  by  fear;  in  violation  of  both  federal  law 
and  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  of  1804,  they  at  once  began 
to  take  possession  of  the  Indian  cornfields.  Of  all  the  vast 
domain  ceded  to  the  whites,  this  particular  region  was  the 
only  part  actually  used  by  the  Indians;  but  the  newcomers, 
feeling  that  the  land  by  right  belonged  to  the  white  man,  and 
relying  on  the  support  of  both  public  and  official  opinion, 
worried  themselves  not  at  all  over  fine  discriminations.  They 
wanted  the  fields.  They  took  them. 

The  Sauk  and  Foxes,  though  a  spirited  people,  had  killed 
no  white  man  since  the  treaty  of  1816;  their  meekness  under 
the  treatment  of  these  whites  is  surprising.  Each  year  the 
squatters  encroached  further  upon  their  fields,  continually 
fencing  in  greater  portions.  Indian  women  and  children  were 
severely  whipped  for  venturing  beyond  the  limits  thus  set,  and 
boys  and  men  were  summarily  chastised  when  the  temper  of 
the  newcomers  was  aroused.9 

The  proximity  of  the  whites  quickly  had  its  effect  on  the 
social  organization  of  the  red  men.  "  Many  of  our  people, 
instead  of  going  to  their  old  hunting  grounds,  where  game  was 
plenty,  would  go  near  to  the  settlements  to  hunt — and,  instead 
of  saving  their  skins  to  pay  the  trader  for  goods  furnished 
them  in  the  fall,  would  sell  them  to  the  settlers  for  whiskey! 
and  return  in  the  spring  with  their  families,  almost  naked. 
.  .  ."10  Each  year  only  increased  this  unhappy  condition.  The 
most  important  Sauk  chief,  Keokuk,  an  able,  eloquent,  and 

9  Black  Hawk  was  himself  severely  beaten  on  the  suspicion  of  hog-stealing, 
an  affront  to  his  dignity  that  he  never  forgave.     Black  Hawk,  Autobiography, 
83-84. 

10  Ibid.,  Si. 


156  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

sagacious  man,  felt  the  futility  of  protesting  at  the  advance 
of  the  whites.  He  decided,  upon  the  advice  of  the  Indian 
agent  at  Rock  Island,  that  his  people  had  better  remove  to 
their  lands  across  the  Mississippi,  and  all  his  influence  was 
used  to  bring  about  the  migration. 

Black  Hawk,  a  fighter  from  his  youth,  now  an  old  war 
chief  over  sixty  years  of  age,  was  by  nature  an  active  protes- 
tant.  Having  had  but  slight  contact  with  the  Americans,  and 
that,  unfortunately,  of  an  untoward  nature,  he  was  quite 
frankly  no  friend  of  theirs.  The  British,  however,  had  long 
ago  secured  and  thereafter  retained  his  friendship.  He  and 
his  band  made  frequent  trips  to  Canadian  Maiden,  an  unfailing 
source  of  presents  and  flattering  words.  This  old  man,  his 
resentment  easily  roused  and  slowly  quieted,  disdained  the 
counsel  of  Keokuk.  His  reaction  in  this  matter  may  have  been 
influenced  by  the  fact  that  his  own  power  waxed  only  in  days 
of  war;  he  was  clearly  jealous  of  Keokuk  and  the  latter's  sway 
over  the  people,  and  Keokuk's  talk  of  removing  roused  the  old 
warrior's  contempt  for  his  supineness.  The  faction  opposing 
Keokuk's  plan  found  a  ready  champion  in  Black  Hawk,  who 
at  one  stroke  thus  divided  Keokuk's  power  and  increased  his 
own,  and  in  addition  opened  a  possibility  of  the  Indians'  stand- 
ing their  ground  against  the  arrogant  white  neighbors  to  the 
end  of  retaining  the  beloved  homeland.  The  struggle  between 
the  chiefs  lasted  two  seasons ;  when  Keokuk's  eloquence  finally 
persuaded  the  majority  of  the  tribe  to  cross  the  river,  Black 
Hawk  and  his  band  remained  staunchly  at  their  village. 

In  spite  of  his  warlike  nature,  up  to  this  time  the  old  chief 
had  in  advice  and  action  shown  a  paradoxical  meekness  and 
forbearance  in  dealing  with  the  white  intruders.  For  a  long 
time  he  was  concerned  only  with  being  allowed  peaceably  to 
remain  in  his  village.  These  settlers,  however,  were  bringing 
a  biting  realization  of  the  full  meaning  of  federal  claims,  and 
with  the  sharp  goad  of  mistreatment  he  had  become  convinced 
that  the  treaty  to  which  the  whites  so  constantly  referred  was 
a  fraud.  Even  to  Black  Hawk's  simple  standard,  the  thousand 


THE   LAST  OF   THE    INDIANS  157 

dollars  annuity  was  too  greatly  disproportionate  to  the  land 
involved.  The  only  living  signer  of  the  treaty  had  always 
vigorously  denied  that  he  had  ever  so  much  as  considered 
the  sale  of  land  north  of  Rock,  river,  much  less  consented  to 
it  in  a  signed  treaty.  When  Black  Hawk  told  his  story  to  the 
British  agent  at  Maiden,  and  later  to  General  Cass,  they 
affirmed  that  if  it  was  true  the  whites  could  not  remove  him; 
and  Black  Hawk  determined  now  to  employ  different  tactics 
with  the  intruders.  Almost  simultaneously  with  his  decision, 
however,  the  squatters,  who  for  seven  years  had  with  increas- 
ing self-assurance  been  encroaching  more  and  more  daringly 
upon  his  homeland,  took  out  preemption  rights  over  a  few 
quarter  sections  of  land  which  included  most  of  the  village,  the 
graves,  and  the  cornlands  that  time  out  of  mind  had  belonged 
to  the  Sauks;  the  force  of  the  provision  in  the  treaty  of  1804 
that  guaranteed  the  right  of  the  Indians  to  live  and  hunt  upon 
the  land  as  long  as  it  remained  the  property  of  the  United 
States  was  thus  cleverly  evaded. 

The  squatters,  now  squatters  no  longer,  but  preemptioners 
with  legal  property  rights  over  part  of  the  disputed  land,  at 
once  ordered  the  Indians  to  remove  —  not  from  the  land  actu- 
ally sold,  but  to  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi.  To  their 
astonishment,  fortified  by  advice  of  friends  that  the  land  had 
never  been  legally  ceded,  Black  Hawk  turned  upon  them  and 
indignantly  ordered  them  to  leave  the  country.  Strangers 
appropriating  their  fields,  strangers  plowing  up  the  graves  of 
their  fathers,  strangers  in  the  homeland  regarding  the  Sauk 
as  intruders  —  these  burning  realities  were  dire  fulfillment  of 
the  fear  of  white  rapacity  that  had  come  upon  him  when  first 
he  learned  that  the  yearly  presents  his  people  had  been  receiv- 
ing were  in  reality  payment  for  tribal  lands.  To  Black  Hawk 
it  ^appeared  incomprehensible  that  the  Great  Father  should 
wink  at  the  forcible  seizure  of  this  one  small  point  of  land 
when  the  whites  had  gained  from  his  people  such  quantities 
beside.  If  such  was  the  case,  however,  he  proposed  a  stand 
against  the  aliens. 


158  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

At  this  unexpected  change  of  front  the  settlers  fled  in  panic. 
In  April,  eight  of  them  sent  a  memorial  to  Governor  Reynolds 
setting  forth  their  grievous  wrongs  at  the  hands  of  the  Indians. 
It  appeared  that  the  Sauk  on  the  Rock  river  had  "  threatened 
to  kill  them;  that  they  acted  in  a  most  outrageous  manner; 
threw  down  their  fences,  turned  horses  into  their  corn-fields, 
stole  their  potatoes,  saying  the  land  was  theirs  and  that  they 
had  not  sold  it,  .  .  .  levelled  deadly  weapons  at  the  citizens," 
and  as  a  final  outrage  these  Indians  had  gone  "to  a  house, 
rolled  out  a  barrel  of  whiskey,  and  destroyed  it."11  On  April 
30,  thirty-seven  settlers  again  asked  protection  from  the  Sauk, 
who  it  was  claimed  were  acting  in  "  an  outrageous  and  men- 
acing manner,"  and  in  May,  receiving  no  reply,  sent  a  personal 
delegation  to  the  executive. 

Governor  Reynolds,  from  memorials,  letters,  and  rumors 
was  convinced  of  the  imminent  danger  of  an  Indian  war;  in 
fact,  he  proclaimed  Illinois  in  a  state  of  "actual  invasion" 
and  called  for  volunteers.12 

By  June  there  were  six  hundred  volunteers  and  ten  com- 
panies of  regulars  in  the  field  under  General  Edmund  P. 
Gaines,  marching  across  the  northern  wilderness.  They  were 
a  comforting  array  to  the  terrified  inhabitants.  The  Indians, 
dismayed  by  this  menacing  reply  to  their  crude  effort  to  secure 
justice,  watched  the  demonstration  of  the  assembled  troops 
in  front  of  their  village  on  June  25 ;  and  during  the  night  the 
whole  band  quietly  withdrew  to  their  lands  in  Iowa,  so  that 
the  next  day  the  troops  entered  an  empty  village.  On  June 
30,  1831,  General  Gaines  and  Governor  Reynolds  were  able 
to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  capitulation  and  peace  by  which  the 
Indians  not  only  confirmed  the  ancient  cession  of  1804  but 
solemnly  agreed  never  to  cross  to  the  eastern  side  of  the 

11  Drake,  Life  and  Adventures  of  Black  Hawk,  100 ;  Stevens,  Black  Haivk 
War,  80-85.    Black  Hawk  avers  that  he  pleaded  with  the  whites  to  cease  selling 
whisky,  but  that  one  man  in  particular  persisted  until  he  went  with  a  party 
of  Indians,  rolled  out  a  barrel  and  destroyed  the  liquor.     "  I  did  this  for  fear 
some  of  the  whites  might  be  killed  by  my  people  when  drunk."     Black  Hawk, 
Autobiography,  89. 

12  Sangamo  Journal,  April  26,  1832. 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS  159 

Mississippi  except  by  permission  of  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment. 

The  Indians,  however,  had  left  their  growing  crops  in 
Illinois,  and  it  was  too  late  to  plant  anew  in  Iowa.  By  autumn 
they  were  out  of  provisions.  One  night  a  little  company  of 
their  young  men  crossed  the  river  to  steal  roasting  ears  from 
the  crops  they  had  left  on  their  old  lands.  The  whites  fired 
upon  them  and  complained  loudly  of  the  double  offense  of 
thieving  and  of  violating  the  treaty.  Much  more  startling 
was  the  daring  of  an  expedition  of  Foxes,  who  went  up  the 
Mississippi  to  avenge  upon  the  Menominee  warriors  the  mur- 
der of  eight  Fox  chiefs  the  previous  year.13  They  fell  upon 
a  party  of  twenty-eight  drunken  braves  encamped  on  an  island 
opposite  the  fort  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  scalped  and  muti- 
lated the  whole  band.  This  to  the  Indian  code  was  only  just 
reprisal;  Black  Hawk  indignantly  refused  to  deliver  up  any  of 
his  band  for  trial,  especially  since  no  such  demand  had  been 
made  of  the  Menominee  the  year  before. 

During  this  episode  famine  conditions  continued.  At  the 
invitation  of  the  Prophet,  Black  Hawk  determined  to  cross 
the  Mississippi  the  following  spring  and  raise  a  crop  with  his 
friends,  the  Winnebago.  He  had  a  childlike  conviction  that 
so  long  as  he  showed  no  warlike  inclinations  and  was  not  enter- 
ing his  old  village,  the  government  would  not  molest  him. 
After  his  people  had  been  strengthened  by  a  year's  plenty,  he 
hoped  to  perfect  the  rosy,  if  somewhat  nebulous,  plans  that 
he  had  formed  from  reports  brought  to  him  by  Indian  runners. 
They  assured  him  that  a  powerful  coalition  of  British,  Winne- 
bago, Ottawa,  Chippewa,  and  Potawatomi  stood  ready  to  aid 
the  Sauk  and  Foxes  not  only  in  regaining  their  village  but  in 
repaying  the  humiliation  and  injustice  they  had  suffered  from 
the  Americans.  The  supreme  importance  of  filling  the  stomachs 
of  his  band  made  the  present  consideration  of  war  impossible. 
With  naive  security  in  the  thought  of  his  present  peaceful 
intentions,  he  with  his  four  hundred  warriors  took  their 

*sSattffamo  Journal,  May  3,  1832. 


160  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

women,  children,  and  belongings  and  in  full  view  of  Fort 
Armstrong,  crossed  the  Mississippi  in  April,  1832,  and  started 
up  Rock  river  toward  the  Winnebago  country.14 

General  Henry  Atkinson  with  a  small  company  of  regulars 
had  recently  been  stationed  at  Fort  Armstrong  to  enforce  the 
demand  of  the  Indian  department  for  the  Fox  murderers  of 
the  Menominee.  Upon  news  of  the  invasion,  he  sent  an 
express  ordering  the  band  to  return.  Black  Hawk,  affronted 
at  his  preemptory  tone  and  protesting  his  peaceful  mission  of 
making  corn,  refused  and  continued  to  refuse  when  threatened 
with  force. 

Meanwhile,  the  news  had  spread,  and  Illinois  was  ablaze 
with  excitement.  Conditions  in  the  state  were  ripe  for  an 
Indian  war;  a  month  after  Governor  Reynolds'  fiery  appeal, 
sixteen  hundred  volunteers  rendezvoused  at  Beardstown.  They 
were  backwoodsmen,  hardy,  courageous,  excellent  marksmen 
and  horsemen,  who  had  progressed  across  a  continent  by  the 
aid  of  rifle  and  ax  —  with  an  appeal  to  fisticuffs  in  case  of 
personal  difficulties.  Their  independence,  their  isolation,  their 
whole  habit  of  life,  built  on  a  proud  consciousness  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Jeffersonian  tradition,  produced  the  sharpest  indi- 
vidualism. These  men,  starving  for  incident,  heard  in  the  call 
to  arms  a  promise  of  a  frolic  more  venturesome  than  a  wolf 
hunt;  it  involved  an  appeal  to  the  spirit  of  public  service  to 
hunt  down  and  destroy  a  pest  more  deadly  than  wolves.15 
They  themselves  were  unconscious  of  the  tremendous  psychic 
hold  the  savage  had  established  over  them  in  the  form  of  a 
fear,  which  in  the  face  of  a  threatened  reverse  would  stampede 
them  in  frantic  hysteria. 

The  troops  had  been  gathered  in  from  the  fields.  Will- 
ingly, even  in  the  face  of  two  successive  bad  seasons,  they  left 

14 « When  the  Black  Hawk  and  party  re-crossed  to  the  east  side  of  the 
Mississippi  River  in  1832,  they  numbered  three  hundred  and  sixty-eight  men. 
They  were  hampered  with  many  women  and  children,  and  had  no  intention  to 
make  war."  Printed  as  appendix  to  Mrs.  J.  H.  Kinzie,  Wau-Eun,  385;  Thwaites, 
"The  Story  of  the  Black  Hawk  War,"  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  12:230. 

15  In  1814  the  territorial  legislature  offered  fifty  dollars  to  any  citizen  killing 
or  taking  a  depredating  Indian,  while  only  two  dollars  was  given  for  a  wolf. 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS          161 

their  plows,  grabbed  their  rifles,  and  rode  away  to  form  them- 
selves democratically  into  companies  at  the  nearest  crossroads. 
They  chose  their  officers  as  children  form  for  a  tug  of  war,  by 
standing  in  line  behind  the  man  of  their  choice.  Then,  whoop- 
ing, yelling,  firing  their  guns  in  the  air,  they  raced  off  to  war.16 
That  such  troops  would  be  able  to  understand  or  submit 
readily  to  discipline  was  not  possible.  Allow  the  man  whom 
they  had  recently  honored  by  electing  captain  —  a  man  whom 
they  knew  thoroughly  as  no  better  than  themselves  —  allow 
such  a  one  to  take  advantage  of  his  position  to  direct  an  action 
undesirable  to  them?  Incomprehensible!  To  the  recently 
elected  captain  this  point  of  view  seemed  entirely  reasonable. 
With  an  active  sense  of  political  favors  to  come,  he  was  not 
the  one  to  insist  when  thoroughly  convinced  that  such  insistence 
would  effect  nothing  but  his  own  unpopularity. 

The  rollicking  volunteers,  divided  into  four  regiments, 
a  spy  battalion,  and  two  odd  battalions,  marched  to  Fort  Arm- 
strong where,  on  the  seventh  of  May,  General  Atkinson 
assumed  command.  It  was  at  once  agreed  that  General  Samuel 
Whiteside  with  the  recruits  should  proceed  about  fifty  miles 
up  Rock  river  to  Prophetstown,  there  to  rest  until  the  ten 
companies  of  infantry  regulars  from  the  fort  with  provisions 
could  follow  in  keel-boats.  The  troops,  arrived  at  Prophets- 
town,  burned  the  vacant  village  by  way  of  pastime  and  marched 
on  toward  Dixon,  with  splendid  improvidence  abandoning 
baggage  trains  and  provisions  in  order  to  make  better  time. 
Upon  their  arrival  they  found  two  independent  battalions  of 
mounted  volunteers  under  Major  Isaiah  Stillman,  itching  to 
get  into  a  scrimmage  and  display  their  prowess.  Accordingly, 
Whiteside  sent  them  to  spy  out  the  land  farther  up  Rock  river 
and,  if  possible,  to  find  the  Indians.  On  the  fourteenth  of 
May,  Stillman,  with  his  men  on  the  alert  for  a  chance  to  scalp 
a  savage,  encamped  in  a  small  grove  of  scrub  oak  completely 
surrounded  by  open,  undulating  prairie. 

leWakefield,  History  of  the  Black  Haivk  War,  154;  Nicolay  and  Hay, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  1:89. 


i6i  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

The  Indians  were  not  far  away.  For  a  week  Black  Hawk 
had  been  in  council  with  the  Prophet  and  the  Winnebago;  and 
to  his  dismay  he  was  learning  that  the  fair  promises  of  British 
and  Indian  aid  awaiting  him  when  he  should  require  were 
empty.  Hospitality  even  was  not  of  the  warmest.  Black 
Hawk,  himself  an  unsophisticated  old  fellow,  was  often  the 
dupe  of  the  wily  and  mischievous  who  had  persuaded  him  into 
believing  that  which  he  secretly  desired.  Added  to  his  own 
growing  fear  that  his  hopes  were  groundless  came  the  sharper 
one  that  his  people  should  discover  the  fruitlessness  of  their 
quest.  Disturbing  rumors  of  war  preparations  among  the 
whites  were  brought  him.  With  gathering  apprehension  he 
pushed  on  to  Sycamore  creek  in  the  hope  that  his  council  there 
with  the  Potawatomi  might  bring  forth  something  more  hope- 
ful. But  the  advice  of  Shabonee,  the  friend  of  the  whites,  was 
well  heeded;  Black  Hawk  could  effect  little.  The  Potawatomi 
were  politely  aloof;  they  had  no  corn  to  share,  much  less  had 
they  men.  Only  a  handful  of  hotheads  and  jingoes  listened 
to  Black  Hawk.  The  day  of  a  sharp  repulse  to  white  aggres- 
sion would  never  dawn;  the  story  of  British  aid  was  false; 
and  the  Indians  were  now  too  well  acquainted  with  buttered 
bread  to  risk  plainer  fare. 

For  Black  Hawk  the  bubble  had  burst;  he  was  defeated; 
he  was  now  ready  to  return  and  make  corn  in  Iowa.  On  the 
heels  of  his  resolution  came  the  news  of  an  encampment  of 
three  hundred  and  forty  soldiers  only  eight  miles  away.  Here 
was  a  chance,  with  not  too  great  a  loss  of  dignity,  to  accede 
to  the  whites,  and  he  immediately  sent  three  young  men  under 
a  flag  of  truce  to  arrange  a  council  at  one  of  the  other  camps. 
The  Indians  rode  to  Stillman's  eager  men,  who,  toward  sunset, 
saw  the  approaching  trucebearers  nearly  a  mile  away;  await- 
ing no  orders,  many  jumped  upon  their  horses  and  ran  the 
Indians  in  amid  yells  and  imprecations.  While  their  mission 
was  being  explained  five  other  Indians  whom  Black  Hawk 
had  sent  to  watch  the  effect  of  his  message  were  observed  on 
a  knoll  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  away.  The  excitement 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS  163 

in  camp  increased;  first  twenty  men,  then  others,  dashed  away 
to  bring  in  the  newcomers.  The  Indians,  seeing  the  headlong 
approach,  wheeled  to  ride  away.  The  whites  fired;  two  of  the 
Indians  were  killed;  and  when  the  camp  heard  the  shots,  one 
of  the  Indians  who  had  accompanied  the  flag  of  truce  was  shot 
down  in  cold  blood.17 

With  the  shooting,  it  became  impossible  for  the  officers 
to  exert  any  control  over  the  raw  and  independent  men.  Here 
was  the  fun  they  had  left  home  to  find.  Little  groups  continued 
to  gallop  away  in  an  irregular  stream  over  the  darkening 
prairie  to  join  their  comrades  who  had  been  so  fortunate  as 
to  be  first  in  an  Indian  fracas. 

In  the  bedlam  of  the  camp,  the  two  remaining  Indians 
escaped;  three  of  the  party  of  five  hurried  to  Black  Hawk 
with  the  news  of  the  reception  given  his  flag  of  truce.  Black 
Hawk  was  astounded.  He  had  with  him  forty  warriors  only; 
but,  seeing  the  pursuing  riders  approaching,  he  formed  his 
men  behind  a  clump  of  chaparral  with  a  stirring  appeal  dearly 
to  sell  their  lives  in  avenging  their  wantonly  murdered  com- 
rades. When  the  foremost  of  Stillman's  men  was  all  but  upon 
them  the  Indians  burst  from  cover  with  a  crackle  of  rifles  — 
whooping,  yelling,  and  dashing  madly  into  the  midst  of  the 
advance  guard.  That  squad  in  one  blinding  flash  realized  its 
temerity;  imagination  peopled  thickly  the  early  darkness  with 
blood-thirsty  savages.  With  a  yell  of  "  Injuns !  Injuns !  "  the 
troops  wheeled  and  fled  headlong  toward  camp  —  the  whole 
force  in  a  very  madness  of  fear.18 

The  astonished  Indians  pursued,  but  it  was  impossible  to 
come  up  with  the  flying  foe.  They  had  to  satisfy  themselves 
with  dispatching  those  unfortunates  who  fell  behind.  The 
men  did  not  stop  when  they  reached  camp  but  abandoning 
everything  rushed  on  through  toward  Dixon.  All  night  and 
the  next  day  exhausted  men  came  straggling  into  Atkinson's 
camp  with  fearful  and  wonderful  tales  of  the  fifteen  hundred  or 

17  Stevens,  Black  Hawk  War,  132-133;  Sangamo  Journal,  October  6,  1832. 

18  Captain  Adams  and  a  handful  of  men  made  a  brave  stand  and  fought 
till  they  fell.    Stevens,  Black  Hawk  War,  134. 


164  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

two  thousand  Indians  deployed  about  with  diabolical  military 
genius  by  General  Black  Hawk ! 19  Each  was  convinced  that 
the  slaughter  had  been  tremendous  —  that  any  not  yet  arrived 
in  camp  were  slain.  The  actual  loss  in  fact  was  only  eleven 
men,  but  the  immediate  effect  on  Indians  and  whites  was  tre- 
mendous. Black  Hawk,  feeling  that  he  had  been  precipitated 
into  certain  war,  was  elated  by  his  success;  the  capture  of  pre- 
cious provisions,  blankets,  saddlebags,  and  camp  equipage 
now  made  it  possible  for  him  to  think  of  carrying  on  hostilities. 
Sending  out  scouting  parties  to  watch  the  movements  of  the 
whites,  he  removed  his  women  and  children  to  the  swampy 
fastnesses  of  Lake  Koshkonong,  near  the  headwaters  of  Rock 
river  in  Wisconsin.  Leaving  them  here,  he  and  his  braves, 
with  parties  of  recruits  from  the  Winnebago  and  Potawatomi, 
descended  on  terrified  northern  Illinois  to  harass  it  with  border 
warfare. 

The  panic  that  had  arisen  in  Illinois  at  news  of  the  Indians' 
first  coming  was  as  nothing  compared  to  that  which  now  swept 
over  the  state.  Everywhere  on  the  frontier  homes  were  hur- 
riedly deserted,  while  families  and  whole  settlements  scuttled 
to  forts.20  The  frontier  shivered  with  an  apprehension  which 
feverishly  increased  as  stories  of  bushwhacking  warfare  began 
to  come  in. 

Governor  Reynolds  at  once  issued  a  fresh  levy  for  two 
thousand  men.  This  was  necessary  as  the  troops,  completely 
disheartened  by  Stillman's  disaster,  clamored  to  be  discharged. 
Many  had  enlisted  for  a  few  weeks  only;  though  there  was 
now  direct  need  of  their  services  a  storm  of  protest  arose  from 
them  in  which  the  bad  weather,  the  neglected  fields,  the  lack 
of  provisions,  and  the  futility  of  further  pursuit,  all  played 
a  part  as  reasons  for  abandoning  the  enterprise.  The  impos- 
sibility of  carrying  on  a  war  with  an  unwilling  militia  as 
soldiery  was  only  too  apparent;  late  in  May  the  governor 
mustered  them  out  of  service.  Three  hundred  rangers  ree'n- 

19  Sangamo  Journal,  May  3,  14,  24,  1832. 

20  Ibid.,  May  31,  June  21,  1832. 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS  165 

listed  at  once  so  that  the  frontier  might  have  some  protection 
while  a  new  army  was  being  raised.21 

During  this  interval,  an  irregular  border  warfare  was 
carried  on  in  which  two  hundred  whites  and  about  as  many 
Indians  lost  their  lives.  News  of  the  massacre  at  Indian  creek 
where  fifteen  men,  women,  and  children  were  slaughtered,22 
of  the  sharp  skirmish  on  the  Pecatonica  where  Major  Henry 
Dodge  and  a  gallant  handful  avenged  five  murdered  whites, 
and  of  the  desperate  attack  on  Apple  river  fort  hurried  the 
army  into  service.  In  less  than  three  weeks  after  Stillman's 
defeat  thirty-two  hundred  mounted  militiamen  took  the  field 
under  Atkinson.  This  force  was  divided  into  three  brigades, 
with  Generals  Alexander  Posey,  Milton  K.  Alexander,  and 
James  D.  Henry  in  command.  Colonel  Jacob  Fry's  rangers, 
Dodge's  Michigan  rangers,  and  the  regular  infantry  completed 
the  fighting  force  of  four  thousand  men,  or  ten  to  one  of  the 
Indian  strength.23 

The  real  problem  that  faced  these  commanders  was  that 
of  bringing  to  the  consciousness  of  the  unruly  men  under  them 
a  realizing  sense  of  the  necessity  of  obedience.  Neither  the 
disciplined  companies  of  infantry  under  Atkinson  nor  the  thou- 
sand regulars  being  rushed  from  the  seaboard  under  General 
Winfield  Scott  could  win  the  war  against  a  mounted  enemy, 
unwilling  to  make  a  stand.  But  a  militia,  however  well- 
mounted  and  however  intrepid,  which  refused  to  submit  itself 
to  discipline,  would  convert  the  war  into  a  series  of  Still- 
man's runs. 

In  General  James  D.  Henry,  Illinois  found  the  man  for 
such  troops.  A  blacksmith  in  civil  life,  his  avocation  had  been 
the  study  of  military  tactics  and  memoirs.  The  narrow  limits 
of  the  incident  called  the  Black  Hawk  War  afforded  him  the 

^•Sangamo  Journal,  May  24,  31,  1832;  Galenian,  June  13,  1832;  Stevens, 
Black  Hawk  War,  141. 

22  Sangamo  Journal,  May  31,  1832. 

28  Thwaites,  "Story  of  the  Black  Hawk  War,"  in  Wisconsin  Historical 
Collections,  12:246.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  description  of  the  Wis- 
consin country  is  drawn  from  contemporary  accounts  of  men  suffering  from  the 
hardships  of  marches  through  a  wilderness. 


166  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

opportunity  to  display  an  alert  tactical  sense,  a  military  judg- 
ment far  above  that  of  his  colleagues,  and,  most  important,  a 
power  in  handling  men  that  in  a  few  weeks  turned  obstinate 
material  into  a  trained  army. 

For  some  weeks,  however,  it  was  not  evident  that  the 
second  campaign  would  be  more  fruitful  than  the  first.  Though 
all  advantages  were  with  the  whites,  the  army  seemed  unable 
to  apprehend  how  weak  an  enemy  they  were  pursuing.  Black 
Hawk  had  no  army  —  only  a  band  of  warriors  heavily  encum- 
bered with  the  unaccustomed  responsibility  of  women  and 
children.  For  more  than  a  year  they  had  been  ill  nourished, 
and  they  had  now  been  reduced  to  a  literally  starving  condi- 
tion. The  rugged  country  through  which  they  fled  was  quite 
unknown  to  them;  their  guides,  as  ill-fortune  pressed  close, 
deserted  them.  Though  it  was  midsummer,  these  dreary 
wastes  of  bogs,  morasses,  lakes,  and  pine  forests  yielded 
neither  game,  fruit,  nor  fish.  They  lived  on  the  bark  of  trees, 
roots,  and  horseflesh.24  Black  Hawk  had  selected  this  deso- 
late country  in  the  belief  that  the  whites  could  not  follow  into 
its  fastnesses;  but  when  Atkinson  with  the  main  army  pursued 
him  to  the  headwaters  of  Rock  river  at  Lake  Koshkonong,  he 
was  forced  to  flee  onward,  west  and  north  in  the  hope  that  he 
and  his  starving  band  might  reach  and  cross  the  Mississippi 
to  safety. 

The  army,  after  the  hopeful  rush  on  the  warm  trail  to 
Koshkonong,  only  to  find  a  hastily  deserted  camp,  began  to 
flounder  about  in  aimless  marches  and  unsatisfactory  explora- 
tions. Spirits  rapidly  sank.  Men  grumbled  that  they  could 
wander  forever  in  that  hateful  northern  country  and  the  In- 
dians could  remain  that  long  a  will  o'  the  wisp.  Sleeping 
uneasily  on  their  arms  in  fear  of  a  night  attack,  being  short 
rationed  for  days  at  a  time,  wading  hip  deep  through  water 
and  mud,  marching  toward  nothing  but  long  stoppages  —  all 
this  they  were  enduring  with  never  a  sight  of  a  hostile  Indian ! 

2*  Drake,  Life  and  Adventures  of  Black  Hawk,  152;  Black  Hawk,  Auto- 
biography, 130. 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS  167 

The  whole  thing  seemed  ridiculously  futile;  Governor  Rey- 
nolds and  his  staff  with  other  prominent  Illinoisians  having 
had  sufficient  experience  of  war  left  for  home.  By  the  middle 
of  July  the  volunteer  force  had  been  reduced  one-half.  Fatigue, 
delay,  hardship,  privation  were  not  the  frolic  for  which  they 
had  enlisted.25 

Under  these  circumstances  Atkinson  fell  back  to  Fort  Kosh- 
konong  to  await  the  return  of  Henry,  Alexander,  and  Dodge 
who  with  their  commands  had  been  sent  to  Fort  Winnebago 
for  supplies.  While  there,  these  officers  were  positively 
assured  that  Black  Hawk  was  encamped  about  thirty-five  miles 
north  of  Atkinson.  Elated  at  his  proximity,  they  agreed  to 
disobey  orders  and  to  march  directly  toward  Black  Hawk. 
Alexander,  however,  almost  at  once  reported  that  his  men 
refused  to  go.  Henry,  of  different  stuff,  quelled  a  threatened 
mutiny  among  his  officers  and  with  Major  Dodge  started  on 
a  three  days  forced  march  over  miles  of  treacherous  swamps. 
Then,  unexpectedly,  they  struck  the  broad,  fresh  trail  of  Black 
Hawk  trying  to  escape  by  way  of  Four  Lakes  and  the  Wis- 
consin. 

The  men  were  rejuvenated.  Tents,  baggage,  blankets, 
and  even  clothing  were  dumped  in  a  pile  in  the  wilderness; 
and  the  forced  march  continued.  Here  at  last  was  a  chance 
for  real  fighting  and  a  speedy  end  to  the  war;  there  was  no 
grumbling  even  when  a  terrific  rain  storm  forced  the  men  to 
travel  over  a  hundred  miles  with  nothing  in  their  stomachs 
but  a  little  wet  flour  and  raw  meat.  They  were  hot  on  the 
trail,  with  the  rear  guard  of  the  Indians  only  two  or  three  miles 
in  advance.  Pots  and  kettles  and  all  manner  of  Indian  camp 
equipment  lined  the  way.  Exhausted  old  men,  too  ill  to  keep 
up  with  their  flying  bands,  fell  behind  to  disclose  by  their  weak- 
ness the  straits  to  which  Black  Hawk  was  reduced.26 

25  Reynolds,  My  Own  Times,  251-252;  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  132-135. 

26  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  139-146.    Some  half  dozen  of  these  old  creatures, 
blind  and  infirm,  were  promptly  shot  and   scalped  by  the  whites.     Thwaites, 
"Story  of  the  Black  Hawk  War,"  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  12:253; 
Wakefield,  History  of  the  Black  Hawk  War,  109-110. 


i68  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  July  twenty-first,  the  Indians 
came  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  Wisconsin  river.  To 
protect  the  crossing  of  the  main  body,  a  chosen  war  party 
of  about  fifty  braves,  directed  by  Black  Hawk,  made  a  stand 
on  the  bluffs.  After  a  wild  charge,  the  Indians  fought  lying 
down  in  the  tall  grass.  The  whites  left  their  horses  behind 
and,  "with  the  most  terrific  yells  that  ever  came  from  the 
head  of  mortals,  except  from  the  savages  themselves,"  charged 
the  position  again  and  again  with  a  heavy  fire.27  The  fighting 
continued  for  a  half  hour  with  casualties  about  even,  when 
the  Indians  began  to  retreat  slowly  toward  the  river.  Henry, 
instead  of  following  up  this  seeming  advantage,  did  not  pursue 
them  into  the  unknown,  marshy  ground  ahead.  He  knew  that 
disaster  would  have  met  his  men  in  the  darkness,  though  the 
engagement  itself  had  cost  them  only  one  life  and  eight 
wounded.  There  are  varying  accounts  of  the  Indian  loss,  but 
this  valiant  stand  of  the  weakened  warriors  accomplished  its 
end;  it  kept  the  superior  force  of  the  whites  at  bay  until  the 
band  crossed  the  Wisconsin.28 

For  the  Indians,  ugly  misfortune  was  biting  close;  they 
realized  it  keenly.  Just  before  the  dawn  of  the  day  following 
the  battle  of  Wisconsin  Heights,  the  troops  encamped  on  the 
battlefield  were  terrified  to  hear  the  shrill,  eager  tones  of  an 
Indian  in  a  long  harangue,  which  they  supposed  was  addressed 
to  a  war  party.  The  Indian  guides  and  interpreters  had  left 
the  army  after  the  battle,  and  no  one  in  camp  understood  the 
oration.  Henry  felt  it  necessary  to  quell  the  rising  fear  of 
his  men  by  an  address  reminding  them  of  their  dauntlessness 
on  the  previous  day,  of  the  diabolical  wickedness  of  the  enemy, 
appealing  to  them  to  stand  firm,  and  prophesying  that  they 
would  again  be  successful.  That  the  Indian's  oration  was  a 
speech  of  surrender  in  which  he  confessed  their  starving  condi- 
tion, their  inability  to  fight  when  encumbered  by  women  and 
children,  and  their  anxiety  to  be  permitted  peaceably  to  pass 

27  Wakefield,  History  of  the  Black  Hawk  War,  in. 

28  Sangamo  Journal,  September  i,  1832. 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS  169 

over  the  Mississippi,  to  do  no  more  mischief,  was  not  learned 
till  after  the  annihilation  of  the  band  at  Bad  Axe.29 

A  large  party  of  women,  children,  and  old  men  begged 
canoes  and  rafts  from  the  Winnebago  and  floated  down  the 
Wisconsin,  trusting  that  as  noncombatants  the  garrison  at 
Fort  Crawford  would  allow  them  to  escape.  But  a  party  of 
regulars  from  Prairie  du  Chien  attacked  them,  capturing 
thirty-two  women  and  children;  the  rest  of  the  party  were 
killed  or  drowned  during  the  onslaught;  and  those  who  escaped 
into  the  woods  perished  with  hunger  or  were  there  massacred 
by  a  band  of  three  hundred  Menominee  allies  under  a  staff  of 
white  officers.30 

Those  of  the  Sauk  who  had  no  means  of  descending  the 
Wisconsin  started  out  over  the  densely  wooded  hills  and  inter- 
vening black  swamps  toward  the  Mississippi.  "Many  of  our 
people  were  compelled  to  go  on  foot,  for  want  of  horses, 
which,  in  consequence  of  their  having  had  nothing  to  eat  for 
a  long  time,  caused  our  march  to  be  very  slow.  At  length  we 
arrived  at  the  Mississippi,  having  lost  some  of  our  old  men 
and  little  children,  who  perished  on  the  way  from  hunger."31 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  the  steamboat  Warrior 
was  seen  approaching  under  the  command  of  John  Throck- 
morton.  Black  Hawk,  eager  that  no  more  of  his  miserable 
band  should  die,  told  his  braves  not  to  shoot,  hoisted  a  white 
flag,  and  called  out  in  the  Winnebago  tongue  to  send  a  little 
canoe  that  he  might  go  aboard  and  give  himself  up.32  The 
captain,  though  the  message  was  translated  to  him,  affected  to 
believe  that  the  flag  was  a  decoy  and  ordered  them  to  send  a 
boat  on  board.  This  was  impossible,  because  every  boat  the 
Indians  could  secure  was  being  used  to  carry  a  load  across  the 


29  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  146;  Wakefield,  History  of  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  115-116,  134. 

30  Thwaites,  "Story  of  the  Black   Hawk  War,"  in   Wisconsin   Historical 
Collections,  12:255;  Black  Hawk,  Autobiography,  132. 

31  Ibid.,  133.     Twenty-five  warriors,  wounded  at  Wisconsin  Heights,   also 
died  and  marked  the  trail  for  the  whites.     Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  146. 

32  Sangamo  Journal,  October  6,  1832. 


170  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Mississippi  and  all  were  far  beyond  call.  The  captain  in 
writing  an  account  of  the  incident,  August  3,  1832,  continues: 
"After  about  fifteen  minutes  delay,  giving  them  time  to  remove 
a  few  of  their  women  and  children,  we  let  slip  a  six-pounder, 
loaded  with  canister,  followed  by  a  severe  fire  of  musketry; 
and  if  ever  you  saw  straight  blankets,  you  would  have  seen 
them  there.  .  .  .  We  fought  them  for  about  an  hour  or  more 
until  our  wood  began  to  fail.  .  .  .  This  little  fight  cost  them 
twenty-three  killed,  and  of  course  a  great  many  wounded. 
We  never  lost  a  man.  .  .  ."  33 

Such  was  the  reception  of  Black  Hawk's  last  chance  at 
surrender,  for  the  army  bringing  destruction  was  close  upon 
him.  Following  the  battle  of  Wisconsin  Heights  Henry's 
command,  in  need  of  provisions,  fell  back  to  Blue  Mounds 
whence  the  whole  force  under  the  command  of  Atkinson  started 
in  pursuit  of  the  Indians.  No  effort  was  spared  to  make  time 
over  the  toilsome  way  and  the  army  was  only  twenty-four  hours 
behind  Black  Hawk  in  reaching  the  river.  Upon  their  ap- 
proach, the  Indians,  in  order  to  gain  time  for  crossing,  sent 
back  about  twenty  men  to  intercept  the  army  within  a  few 
miles  of  their  camp.  This  party  was  to  commence  an  attack 
and  then  retreat  to  the  river  three  miles  above  the  Indians. 
The  ruse  succeeded.  The  attacking  party  fired  and  then  fell 
back  before  the  charge  of  the  whites;  the  army  immediately 
began  a  hot  pursuit. 

Henry  was  bringing  up  the  rear  with  the  baggage;  Atkin- 
son, jealous  that  the  Illinois  militia  and  its  commander  rather 
than  the  regulars  with  their  chief  should  have  discovered  the 
enemy  and  won  a  victory,  had  placed  the  recently  victorious 
brigade  in  the  rear  and  had  left  it  without  orders.  Reaching 
the  point  of  attack,  Henry  plainly  saw  the  main  trail  leading 
lower  down.  His  three  hundred  men  were  formed  on  foot 
and  advanced  upon  the  main  body  of  three  hundred  Indians, 
who  were  taken  completely  by  surprise.  They  fought  des- 

33  Drake,  Life  and  Adventures  of  Black  Haiok,  153-154;  Ford,  History  of 
Illinois,  156-157. 


THE   LAST  OF   THE   INDIANS  171 

desperately;  but  in  their  famished  condition  they  were  no  match 
for  their  opponents,  who  with  bayonets  fiercely  forced  them 
back  from  tree  to  tree  toward  the  river.  Women,  with  children 
clinging  around  their  necks,  plunged  desperately  into  the  river 
to  be  almost  instantly  drowned  or  picked  off  by  sharpshoot- 
ers.34 Atkinson,  hearing  the  din  behind,  returned  a  half  hour 
later,  and  the  slaughter  proceeded  more  fiercely  than  ever. 
The  steamboat  Warrior  came  back  to  rake  with  canister  the 
islands  that  some  of  the  Indians  had  reached.  Old  men, 
women,  and  children  alike  were  slain.  "It  was  a  horrid  sight," 
wrote  a  participant,  "  to  witness  little  children,  wounded  and 
suffering  the  most  excruciating  pain,  although  they  were  of  the 
savage  enemy,  and  the  common  enemy  of  the  country."  35 

The  massacre  of  the  Bad  Axe  continued  three  hours.  One 
hundred  and  fifty  Indians  were  killed  outright  and  as  many 
more  lost  their  lives  by  drowning.  About  fifty,  mostly  women 
and  children,  were  taken  prisoners.  Three  hundred  Sauk 
succeeded,  either  before  or  during  the  battle,  in  reaching  the 
Iowa  side,  to  be  there  set  upon  by  one  hundred  Sioux,  sent  out 
by  General  Atkinson;  half  of  them  were  slain,  and  many 
others  died  of  exhaustion  and  wounds  before  they  could  reach 
their  friends  in  Keokuk's  village.  Thus  by  the  second  of 
August  not  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  band  of 
nearly  a  thousand  which  crossed  the  Mississippi  in  April,  lived 
to  return  to  their  lands  in  Iowa. 

On  August  7,  1832,  General  Winfield  Scott,  who  had  been 
delayed  by  the  outbreak  of  cholera  among  his  troops,  arrived 
to  assume  command.36  The  following  day  he  mustered  the 

34  Sangamo  Journal,  October  6,   1832,  September  7,  1833. 

35  He  piously  reflected,  however,  that  "  the  Ruler  of  the  Universe,  He  who 
takes  vengeance  on  the  guilty,  did  not  design  those  guilty  wretches  to  escape 
His  vengeance  for  the  horrid   deeds  they  had  done,  which  were  of  the  most 
appalling  nature.     He  here  took  just  retribution  for   the  many  innocent   lives 
those  cruel  savages  had  taken  on  our  northern  frontiers."     Wakefield,  History 
of  the  Black  Ha<wk  War,  132-133. 

30  Sangamo  Journal,  August  2,  1832.  The  asiatic  cholera  first  reached  this 
country  in  June,  1832,  and  broke  out  among  Scott's  detachment  of  troops  while 
they  were  passing  up  the  Great  Lakes.  It  was  so  virulent  that  two  of  the  four 
vessels  proceeded  no  farther  than  Fort  Gratiot;  the  others,  after  a  period  of 
delay  reached  Chicago  in  July.  Fort  Dearborn  was  converted  into  a  hospital, 


172  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

volunteers  out  of  service.  Black  Hawk,  with  several  of  his 
prominent  men,  was  taken  prisoner  and  held  as  hostage  for 
some  months,  during  which  time  he  was  taken  through  the 
eastern  states  so  that  the  white  man's  power  might  be  fully 
impressed  upon  him.  In  June,  1833,  he  was  released,  and 
shorn  of  all  power  the  old  chief  returned  to  the  remnant  of 
his  people  in  Iowa.  "Rock  river,"  he  said,  "was  a  beautiful 
country.  I  loved  my  towns,  my  cornfields,  and  the  home  of 
my  people.  I  fought  for  it.  It  is  now  yours.  Keep  it  as  we 
did."37 

He  was  conquered;  no  other  Indian  in  Illinois  questioned 
the  dominance  of  the  white  race.  The  north  country  was  now 
ready  for  white  possession. 

where  the  pestilence  raged  violently  for  several  days;  checked  there  in  August, 
it  again  broke  out  among  the  troops  at  Rock  Island,  to  be  finally  arrested  by 
removing  the  men  to  small  camps  on  the  Iowa  side  of  the  Mississippi.  Quaife, 
Chicago  and  the  Old  Northwest,  328-337;  Stevens,  Black  Hawk  War,  242-249. 
37  Ibid.,  271 ;  Quaife,  Chicago  and  the  Old  Northwest,  337.  Thwaites, 
"Story  of  the  Black  Hawk  War,"  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  12:264- 
265. 


IX.     THE   SETTLEMENT   OF  THE   NORTH 

EVEN  before  the  Indians  had  retreated  from  northern 
Illinois,  the  advance  of  settlers  into  that  region  began. 
This  advance  of  population  northward  is  one  of  the  most  sig- 
nificant facts  in  the  history  of  the  decade  from  1830—1840.  It 
influenced  not  only  the  character  of  the  population  through 
the  type  of  immigrants  who  poured  in,  but  also  the  demands 
of  the  state  for  public  land  legislation  and  the  consequent 
course  of  political  events.  Further  by  making  evident  the 
need  of  better  transportation  the  immigration  provoked  the 
internal  improvement  mania  of  1837.  The  land  speculator, 
as  elsewhere  in  Illinois,  seeing  a  future  metropolis  in  his  town 
site,  turned  to  a  railroad  as  the  quickest  means  of  realizing  his 
vision;  and  what  was  of  greater  consequence  of  persuading 
others  that  it  was  a  reality. 

By  1830  it  was  evident  that  the  tide  of  immigration  was 
passing  by  the  vacant  lands  of  southern  Illinois  and  turning 
to  the  north.  Already  in  the  rich  bottoms  of  the  Sangamon 
the  pioneer  stage  had  passed,  and  settlement  was  thickening  in 
Sangamon  and  Morgan  counties  at  a  rate  that  was  provoking 
the  jealousy  even  of  Madison  and  Greene,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  counties  to  the  south.1  Throughout  the  Military  Tract 
the  population  was  beginning  to  spread;  the  southern  end  of 
the  tract  had  been  settled  ever  since  the  days  when  Shaw  and 
Hansen  had  contested  the  throne  of  the  kingdom  of  Pike;  but 
now  pioneers  were  moving  north.  Peoria  on  the  Illinois  river 
was  laid  out  in  1826.  In  the  same  year  an  Ohio  speculator 
plotted  Lacon  under  the  name  of  Columbia.  When  in  1826 
a  pioneer  from  Bond  county  settled  near  Magnolia  his  nearest 

1  Alton  Spectator,  November  23,  June  25,  1833 ;  Sangamo  Journal,  January 
19,  February  2,  July  12,  1833. 

173 


i74  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

neighbors  were  fur  traders  at  Hennepin.  In  1835  he  sold  out 
his  holdings  for  $4,200  only  to  lose  his  profits  in  town  lot  specu- 
lation. In  1830  the  county  of  Putnam,  then  including  Bureau, 
Marshall,  and  most  of  Stark,  had  700  inhabitants.2  The  town 
plots  of  Macomb  and  Monmouth  dated  from  1831.  Rush- 
ville,  in  1829  a  hamlet  of  seven  cabins,  was  incorporated  in 
1831  with  1 80  inhabitants. 

The  spread  of  population  tells  a  part  of  the  story.3  In  1831 
there  were  some  ten  thousand  people  in  the  southeastern  part 
of  the  tract — Calhoun,  Pike,  Adams,  Schuyler,  and  Fulton  — 
and  the  increase  of  population  to  this  day  has  necessitated  the 
formation  of  but  one  additional  county  in  that  region.  Else- 
where in  the  tract  there  were  some  two  thousand  inhabitants, 
most  of  them  in  Hancock,  Knox,  and  Henry;  north  of  them 
there  was  a  straggling  population.  The  Indian  traders, 
Colonel  George  Davenport  and  Russell  Farnham  at  the  Sauk 
village,  were  the  leaders  of  a  few  squatters,  whose  settlement 
later  became  Rock  Island;  and  at  Dixon's  Ferry  where  the 
Peoria-Galena  trail  crossed  the  Rock  there  was  a  little  settle- 
ment with  a  few  others  along  the  trail  above  it.  By  1840  Knox 
county  alone  had  seven  thousand  inhabitants,  while  the  four 
counties  just  north  and  west,  Jo  Daviess,  Whiteside,  Carroll, 
and  Rock  Island,  had  together  a  population  of  some  nine 
thousand  persons.4 

Another  interesting  means  of  visualizing  the  settlement  of 
the  north  is  found  in  the  record  of  the  public  land  sales,  though 
one  must  be  careful  to  make  the  proper  allowance  for  the 
activity  of  the  speculator.  Illinois  land  sales  for  the  period 
were  very  speculative  in  character,  varying  more  from  year  to 
year  than  those  in  Missouri ;  in  all  the  west  the  prevailing  rule 
was  large  sales  in  one  state  in  one  year  and  in  another  the 
next.  Thus  in  1834  less  land  was  sold  in  Illinois  than  in  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  or  Michigan.  In  1835  the 

2  Peoria  Register,  April   i,   1837,  May  5,  August  25,  September   8,   1838; 
Pooley,  Settlement  of  Illinois,  380,  381. 

3  Ibid.,  559. 

4  Sixth  Census  of  the  United  States,  376. 


^HANCOCK  kDONOUoJ-''L)LTON-^ 


Population  of  Illinois 

per    Square    Mile    in 

1833 


SETTLEMENT   OF  THE   NORTH        175 

sales  leaped  from  354,013  acres  to  2,096,623,  outstripping 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan,  and  Alabama.  Illinois  did  not  dis- 
tance Mississippi  till  1836.  Again  in  1836  Indiana  outran 
Illinois.5  As  passing  events  drew  the  attention  of  the  specu- 
lator now  to  this  state,  now  to  that,  the  sales  rose  to  high 
figures,  then  fell  to  comparatively  low  ones.  A  glance  at  the 
table  of  sales  reveals  the  fact  that  the  boom  of  1835-1837 
was  most  evident  in  the  western  and  central  Illinois  offices  — 
Edwardsville,  Springfield,  and  Quincy — and  at  Chicago.  In 
the  other  Illinois  offices  the  increase  was  more  uniform,  show- 
ing least  in  the  ill-starred  Vandalia  district.  In  all  the  offices 
the  sales  reached  their  height  in  1836,  then  showed  a  rapid 
decline  and  a  more  moderate  rate  of  sales  thereafter. 

Before  examining  in  detail  the  settlement  of  northern 
Illinois  it  is  necessary  to  consider  for  a  moment  the  unusual 
speculative  conditions  which  existed  in  the  Military  Tract. 
This  territory  lying  between  the  Illinois  and  the  Mississippi 
rivers  had  been  set  aside  for  the  location  of  military  land  war- 
rants issued  to  soldiers  in  the  War  of  1812.  By  1837,  17,075 
patents  had  been  issued  for  2,831,840  acres  of  land.6  This 
by  no  means  included  the  whole  which  contained  3,500,000 
acres.  Further,  all  tracts  much  in  excess  of,  or  much  less  than, 
1 60  acres  had  been  excluded  from  selection.  Accordingly  the 
government  still  had  considerable  desirable  land  in  the  region. 
The  greater  part  of  the  lands,  however,  passed  into  the  hands 
of  speculators.  Some  of  it,  forfeited  for  nonpayment  of  taxes, 
was  snapped  up  by  such  Illinois  magnates  as  Ninian  Edwards. 
The  general  policy  of  speculators  was  to  hold  out  for  high 
prices.  Romulus  Riggs  of  Philadelphia,  who  affected  a  senti- 
mental interest  in  the  state  and  named  his  daughter  for  it, 
offered  in  1837  two  hundred  and  sixty-six  quarter  sections  for 
sale  at  prices  which  S.  H.  Davis  supposed  would  run  from  five 
to  forty  dollars  an  acre.7  Davis  pointed  out  that  it  was  foolish 

5  Executive  Documents,  24  congress,  2  session,  number  6,  p.  8,   n;  Senate 
Documents,  25  congress,  3  session,  number  n,  p.  12,  16. 

6  Executive  Documents,  25  congress,  2  session,  number  83. 

7  Peoria  Register,  October  14,  April  8,  July  8,  1837. 


i76 


THE   FRONTIER   STATE 


to  pay  such  prices  when  federal  land  of  good  quality  could  still 
be  had  for  $1.25  an  acre,  especially  in  Peoria  and  Knox 
counties.8 

During  the  same  period  the  prices  of  town  lots  also  showed 
the  influence  of  the  speculators'  activity.  In  1836  lots  in 
Quincy  sold  as  high  as  seventy-eight  dollars  a  front  foot.  In 
April,  1837,  desirable  town  lots  in  Monmouth  were  worth 
one  thousand  dollars.  Less  desirable  ones  were  selling  at  the 
rate  of  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  dollars.  In  Peoria  at  the 


A  TABLE  or 


1820 

1821 

1822 

1823 

1824 

1825 

1826 

1827 

1828 

1829 

Shawneetown  

2,392 

3,329 

2,050 

1,253 

2.278 

1.357 

2.086 

3.340 

4,512 

8,143 

Kaskaskia  

1,658 

1,627 

1.661 

793 

1.278 

711 

1,901 

2.256 

3.415 

6,380 

Edwardsville  

2,649 

35.243 

5.373 

11.223 

5,541 

5.748 

6,584 

8.398 

18,829 

28.602 

Vandalia  

9,227 

2,205 

640 

614 

895 

1,472 

1,743 

3.591 

19.405 

Palestine  

954 

16,474 

7.903 

11.936 

10.323 

12,915 

9,466 

20.537 

47.221 

Springfield   

38,720 

22,339 

26  767 

56,122 

33,398 

45,206 

86,492 

Danville  

Galena  

Chicago  

Totals  

6,699 

50  380 

27  763 

60  532 

43  986 

45  801 

80  080 

58  601 

96,090 

196.243 

This  table  Is  compiled  from  the  following  sources :  Executive  Documents,  21  con- 
gress, 2  session,  number  2,  p.  57  ;  ibid.,  23  congress,  2  session,  number  3,  p.  92  : 
ibid.,  24  congress,  1  session,  number  5,  p.  10 ;  ibid.,  24  congress,  2  session,  number  6, 
p.  8 ;  ibid.,  26  congress,  2  session,  number  38,  p.  10 ;  Senate  Documents,  23  congress, 
1  session,  number  9,  p.  62 ;  ibid.,  25  congress,  2  session,  number  11,  p.  13 ;  ibid., 
25  congress,  3  session,  number  17,  p.  8 ;  ibid.,  26  congress,  1  session,  number  21, 
p.  13. 

same  time  the  best  lots  sold  for  one  hundred  dollars  a  front 
foot;9  and  in  March,  1837,  there  were  twelve  or  fourteen 
houses  within  sight  on  Kickapoo  prairie  when  nine  months 
before  there  was  not  a  house. 

In  the  Rock  river  country  the  effects  of  the  boom  of  1836— 
1837  were  more  apparent.  On  the  way  to  Savanna  in  Carroll 
county,  Dayton,  Cleveland,  Portland,  Lyndon,  and  Union 
Grove  had  all  been  laid  out  in  1836,  most  of  them  then  having 
from  three  to  twelve  houses,  with  lots  selling  at  from  ten  to 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars.  On  the  road  to  Galena, 

8 By  1838  land  near  Peoria  cost  from  ten  to  thirty  dollars  an  acre;  land  in 
the  tract  could  then  be  had  for  three  to  five  dollars  an  acre.  Peoria  Register, 
October  20,  December  8,  1838. 

9  Ibid.,  April  i,  1837. 


SETTLEMENT   OF  THE   NORTH        177 

Grand  Detour  and  Dixon  had  been  laid  out  in  1836.  In  1839 
they  were  towns  of  fifty  houses,  and  the  most  desirable  lots  in 
them  and  in  Oregon  were  held  at  from  four  hundred  to  six 
hundred  dollars.10 

It  was  in  the  northeast,  however,  that  the  records  of  land 
sales  indicate  the  highest  prices  and  most  rampant  speculation. 
The  price  of  unimproved  land  in  the  vicinity  of  Ottawa  had 
in  1838  increased  to  three  dollars  an  acre.  In  the  years  1835— 
1837  land  speculation  was  focused  at  Chicago.  June  18,  1834, 


ND   SALES 


830 

1831 

1832 

1833 

1834 

1835 

1836 

1837 

1838 

1839 

7.720 

20,523 

17.624 

28.936 

6.904 

10,299 

160.430 

100.977 

54.102 

97.858 

5.000 

11.186 

17.417 

29.235 

15.196 

19.870 

156.738 

105.405 

90.303 

149.108 

30.020 

100.350 

80.713 

92.261 

124,302 

345,794 

503,572 

111.823 

42.789 

58.904 

15.362 

43.174 

8.021 

21.615 

20.207 

29.165 

127.345 

183.891 

109.516 

178.239 

36.413 

54.872 

23.773 

22.043 

22.135 

38,376 

285,025 

144.744 

106.547 

143,123 

)1.933 

99,496 

59.996 

109.642 

66.804 

478.976 

480,837 

104,388 

68.835 

29.999 

160 

1.118 

29.604 

36.131 

367.337 

r.69,37(? 

142,909 

165.243 

50.776 

9,647 

13.710 

26.901 

62.331 

155.784 

277.023 

67.323 

35.690 

35.240 

280.979 

202.365 

35,764 

87.891 

229.471 

370.043 

436.992 

15,618 

17.640 

160.154 

T6.448 

339.408 

122.372 

360.237 

354.010 

2,096.623 

3,199,703 

1,012,842 

778,556 

1.132.872 

the  Democrat  remarked  the  fact  that  seventy-five  buildings 
had  been  erected  in  Chicago  since  spring.  By  December  the 
city  had  a  population  of  3,279.  Next  year  strangers  were 
crowding  in  so  fast  that  for  want  of  accommodation  they  were 
sleeping  on  floors.  Provisions  were  scarce,  and  flour  sold  at 
twenty  dollars  a  barrel.  It  became  necessary  to  meet  the 
criticism  of  the  envious  east  with  assertions  that  prices  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-five  dollars  a  foot  for  town  lots  were  based 
not  on  speculation  but  on  the  exigency  of  the  business  situation. 
Lots,  that  in  the  spring  of  1835  sold  for  nine  thousand  dollars, 
by  the  end  of  the  year  were  held  at  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars; and  rents  were  correspondingly  exorbitant.11 

The  same  effects  of  feverish  speculation  and  settlement 
were  to  be  seen  to  the  south  of  the  Illinois  river.  In  the  nar- 
rative of  a  journey  to  the  northeast  of  Springfield  in  1837, 
Bloomington  was  noted  as  a  town  with  six  or  eight  stores, 

10Peoria  Register,  May  25,  June  i,  1839. 

11  Chicago  American,  August   15,  1835,  January  2,  July  9,  1836. 


178  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

separated  from  Decatur  by  an  almost  unsettled  country. 
Mackinaw  had  drawn  together  twenty-four  houses  and  five 
stores,  the  existence  of  five  or  six  mill  "  seats  "  within  two  or 
three  miles  being  an  attraction.  Speculative  town  sites  were 
scattered  far  and  wide.  Washington  in  Tazewell  county,  with 
three  or  four  hundred  inhabitants,  had  four  stores,  two  black- 
smith shops,  one  cabinet  shop,  a  steam  mill,  four  schools,  and 
six  liquor-selling  establishments  designated  under  various 
names.12  The  nucleus  of  a  town  was  a  mill  to  grind  grain,  a 
store  to  supply  dry  goods  and  hardware  for  the  sustenance  of 
the  family  and  the  supply  of  the  farm,  and  a  grocery  or  public 
house  to  supply  wet  goods  for  the  comfort  of  the  inner  man. 
A  special  feature  of  the  settlement  of  the  north  was  the 
coming  of  settlers  in  colonies  or  organized  groups.  As  early 
as  October,  1832,  Simeon  Francis,  who  was  inclined  to  depre- 
cate the  tendency  to  form  colonies,  noted  wagon  trains  passing 
through  to  Fulton  county  from  Ohio  and  another  company  of 
emigrants  from  Vermont,  which  led  him  to  comment  on  the 
advantages  for  the  settler  of  prairie  and  timber  country. 
Sometimes  there  was  more  of  the  speculative  than  of  the  group 
spirit  in  the  movement,  as  when  in  1839  it  was  rumored  that 
six  eastern  capitalists  were  about  to  offer  for  sale  to  actual 
settlers  forty  thousand  acres  near  Mt.  Auburn  in  Christian 
county.  This,  however,  was  not  a  typical  case.  La  Grange 
in  Henry  county  was  settled  by  a  colony  from  New  York  and 
New  England  that  bought  twenty  thousand  acres,  setting  apart 
a  quarter  section  for  a  town  site.13  In  1833  a  caravan  of 
fifty-two  people  from  Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  and  northern 
New  York,  led  by  the  Lyman  brothers,  came  by  wagon  to 
settle  in  Sangamon  county,  the  country  having  been  previously 
explored  by  two  of  their  number.  A  Connecticut  colony  estab- 
lished Rockwell  in  LaSalle  county.  In  1836  three  colonies 
were  located,  one  at  Tremont  in  Tazewell,  one  in  Knox  county, 

12  Sangamo  Journal,  June  10,  September  9,  1837. 

13 1  bid.,  October  n,  20,  1832.  As  early  as  1834  there  was  a  society  in 
Massachusetts,  the  Old  Colony  Brotherhood,  to  promote  emigration  to  Illinois. 
Chicago  Democrat,  November  12,  1834. 


SETTLEMENT   OF  THE   NORTH        179 

and  one  somewhere  near  Varna  called  Lyons.  The  founding 
of  Weathersfield  in  Henry  county  by  a  colony  from  the  Con- 
necticut town  of  that  name  is  of  interest.  The  first  settler 
came  out  to  the  purchase  in  October,  1836;  in  the  next  year, 
sixteen  men  were  there,  six  with  their  families;  by  July  of 
1839  there  was  a  population  of  one  hundred.  Each  colonist 
had  a  quarter  section  of  prairie,  twenty  acres  of  timber,  and  a 
village  lot.  In  1836  a  New  York  colony  settled  at  Galesburg 
on  sixteen  sections  of  which  one  thousand  and  four  acres  were 
reserved  for  a  college.  The  purchaser  of  each  eighty  acres 
was  allowed  the  free  tuition  of  a  youth  at  any  time  within  the 
limit  of  twenty-five  years  in  the  institution  which  is  now  known 
as  Knox  College.  In  1839  a  Catholic  colony  was  projected  at 
Postville  in  Logan  county.14 

It  remains  to  consider  the  broader  economic  principles 
underlying  the  progress  of  the  individual  settlers  in  the  north. 
These  are  not  so  obscure  as  those  effecting  the  settlement  of 
southern  and  central  Illinois  in  the  preceding  decade.  In  fact 
it  is  possible  to  describe  the  processes  of  home-making  from 
abundant  data  collected  almost  on  the  spot  by  careful  observers 
in  so  many  specific  instances  as  to  make  generalization  possible. 

The  problem  of  the  settler  in  this  decade  was  to  sustain 
himself  on  the  land  while  he  broke  and  fenced  enough  prairie 
to  farm  successfully.  Instead  of  grubbing  up  the  underbrush 
and  planting  his  corn  in  the  shadow  of  girdled  trees  as  the 
earlier  pioneer  did,  the  later  settler  added  to  his  field  by  break- 
ing each  year  a  little  more  of  the  tough  prairie  sod.  When  he 
himself  did  not  own  the  oxen  necessary  for  the  work,  he  was 
able  to  hire  it  done  at  a  fairly  well-established  price  of  $2.50 
an  acre.  Similarly  there  were  standard  prices  for  fencing — 
usually  $1.25  to  $2.00  a  hundred  rails,  a  rate  increasing  with 
the  distance  it  was  necessary  to  haul  them.  At  every  turn 
whether  for  breaking  prairie  or  hauling  rails,  the  use  of  oxen 
was  necessary  and  the  man  who  located  his  farm  on  heavy 

14  Peorla  Register,  July  8,  1837,  May  12,  June  30,  1838,  July  6,  1839;  San- 
gamo  Journal,  January  23,  1836;  Gale,  Brief  History  of  Knox  College,  passim; 
Chicago  Democrat,  May  22,  1839. 


i8o  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

prairie  at  a  distance  from  timber  found  himself  penalized  for 
his  choice  in  dollars  and  cents. 

The  generally  established  principle  for  the  location  of  a 
farm  was  that  it  must  contain  both  prairie  and  timber,  usually 
in  a  ratio  of  two  to  one.  A  man  could,  it  is  true,  avoid  the 
necessity  of  having  timber  of  his  own  by  helping  himself  from 
timber  lots  still  belonging  to  the  federal  government  or  owned 
by  nonresidents,  but  to  some  New  England  consciences  the 
latter  method  if  not  the  former  seemed  unethical.  For  the 
future  development  of  a  farm,  however,  the  wise  man  held  to 
the  proper  proportion  of  timber  and  prairie  as  essential.  The 
speculator  accordingly  made  haste  where  he  could  to  seize  on 
the  timber  at  the  edges  of  the  great  prairies,  secure  in  his 
knowledge  that  those  who  were  foolhardy  enough  to  enter  the 
adjacent  untimbered  land  would  in  the  end  have  to  buy  from 
him  at  his  price. 

Still,  as  the  decade  passed,  men  began  to  assume  such  risks. 
An  observer  in  Tazewell  county  in  1837  noted  with  surprise 
that  settlers  had  pushed  out  four  or  five  miles  into  the  prairie. 
Repeatedly  it  was  proposed  to  plant  timber  on  the  prairies,  or 
to  use  "stone  coal"  for  fuel  and  to  substitute  sod  fences  or 
white  thorn  hedges  for  the  usual  rail  fence.  In  1 839  the  cost 
of  putting  a  rail  fence  around  a  "forty"  was  from  two  to 
three  hundred  dollars,  a  rate  which  seemed  to  call  for  a  more 
economical  system  of  fencing.  It  was  this  need  that  caused 
the  popularity  of  the  Osage  orange  hedge  which  was  advocated 
by  Jonathan  B.  Turner.  In  the  minds  of  most  settlers,  how- 
ever, proximity  to  timber  as  to  water  was  still  essential.15 

His  selection  of  land  once  made,  the  settler's  method  of 
conquering  it  depended  on  whether  or  not  he  had  money.  If  he 
had  financial  resources,  he  built  a  cabin  for  his  family,  bought 
or  hired  several  yoke  of  oxen,  and  set  to  breaking  prairie  at  a 
rate  of  twenty  to  forty  acres  a  year,  meanwhile  buying  grain 
to  sustain  his  family  and  his  oxen.  His  sod  corn,  however, 

16  Sangamo  Journal,  February  2,  1832;  Peoria  Register,  August  n,  1838; 
Chicago  Democrat,  March  25,  1834. 


SETTLEMENT   OF   THE   NORTH        181 

raised  on  the  newly  broken  prairie,  unless  the  hogs  got  into  it 
while  it  was  still  unfenced,  produced  perhaps  fifty  bushels  an 
acre.  Sometimes  he  came  out  alone  in  the  spring  to  plant  the 
first  crop  and  brought  his  family  in  the  fall.  If  on  the  other 
hand  he  had  merely  his  own  labor  and  a  yoke  of  oxen,  he 
easily  found  enough  work  to  support  his  family,  while  in  his 
spare  moments  he  improved  his  own  land.  If  he  was  a  skilled 
carpenter  or  millwright,  he  was  sure  of  good  wages  and  he 
might  rent  a  farm  while  waiting  to  develop  his  own  claim.  If 
the  owner  stocked  his  leasehold  for  him,  the  rent  was  half  or 
two-thirds  of  the  produce.  If  he  stocked  it  himself,  it  was 
one-third.  Meanwhile  his  wages,  if  he  was  industrious,  at 
length  enabled  him  to  buy  a  claim  and  usually  to  enter  it  at 
government  price  when  the  land  was  put  on  sale.16 

An  integral  part  of  this  system  was,  as  may  be  imagined, 
a  recognition  of  the  binding  force  of  squatters'  right.  Long 
before  the  country  was  put  on  sale  by  the  federal  land  officers, 
squatters  had  established  claims  on  the  most  desirable  combi- 
nations of  timber,  prairie,  springs,  and  healthful  sites.  Such 
claims  the  rough  and  ready  custom  of  the  frontier  accepted  as 
valid,  and  another  settler  coming  on  the  land  was  forced  by 
public  opinion  to  recognize  the  claim  by  buying  off  the  occupy- 
ing claimant.  Except  where  extensive  improvements  had  been 
made,  the  prices  of  such  claims  were  not  high;  but  the  business 
was  moderately  profitable,  and  many  pioneers  made  and  sold 
one  claim  after  another  in  their  progress  toward  the  sunset. 
This  perennial  squatter,  so  obnoxious  to  the  eastern  congress- 
man, was  defended  by  the  westerner,  because  he  was  aiding  in 
the  development  of  the  country  by  enabling  the  permanent 
settler  to  purchase  even  in  the  wilds  a  little  grain,  a  few  broken 
acres,  and  a  cabin  that,  until  other  itinerant  squatters  had 
helped  him  to  raise  a  better  one,  would  shelter  his  family.17 

Property  rights  so  acquired  and  transferred  were  real 
bases  of  land  titles  and  wealth,  and  there  were  exact  rules  to 

1B  Peoria  Register,  July  i,  1837,  April  7,  September  i,  29,  1838,  June  15, 
1839. 

17  Ibid.,  August  25,  1838. 


i8z  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

govern  them.  Thus  in  the  early  days  of  the  settlement  of  the 
north,  laying  four  logs  for  the  foundation  of  a  cabin  estab- 
lished a  claim  for  the  duration  of  a  year.  In  order  to  keep  off 
the  claim  jumper,  it  was  necessary  in  1837  to  build  a  cabin 
sixteen  or  eighteen  feet  square  or  to  break  five  acres  of  land. 
These  improvements  served  to  hold  the  claim  for  six  months. 
In  the  Military  Tract  the  usual  claim  was  one  hundred  sixty 
to  two  hundred  forty  acres,  but  in  the  north  three  thousand 
acres  could  be  so  held,  and  even  town  sites  were  said  to  have 
been  located  on  such  claims.18 

In  the  face  of  legislation  and  executive  rulings  framed  by 
indignant  eastern  statesmen,  such  claims  were  maintained  by 
force  of  public  opinion,  usually  manifested  in  the  settlers' 
meetings,  which  before  each  district  was  put  on  sale  bound  all 
settlers  to  hold  together  in  support  of  each  other's  claims 
against  outside  bidders  and  sometimes  even  established  boards 
of  arbitration  to  decide  disputes  between  claimants.  Some- 
times, in  case  settlement  had  preceded  survey,  these  boards 
devised  ways  by  which  each  man  might  make  secure  his  im- 
provements by  a  common  bargain.  Having  once  reached  an 
agreement  among  themselves,  the  settlers  attended  sales  in  a 
body  to  exercise  moral  suasion  on  any  rash  outsider  who  dared 
to  bid  over  the  minimum  for  an  "improvement."  Under 
such  circumstances  scarcely  a  tract  of  land  was  struck  off  at 
ordinary  sale  at  more  than  $1.25  an  acre.19 

The  settlers  were  not  able  in  the  same  way  to  guard  them- 
selves against  usurious  interest  charges  in  case  they  had  to 
borrow  money  to  buy  their  claims.  Frequently  a  sale  was  set 
at  a  time  that  seemed  almost  designed  to  give  the  money  lender 
his  opportunity,  before  crops  were  harvested  or  shortly  after 
money  had  been  put  into  improvements  on  assurances  that  the 
sales  would  not  take  place  for  a  year.  At  such  times  short 
term  loans  brought  ten  per  cent  a  month,  thirty  to  fifty  per 
cent  a  year,  and  thirty  to  forty  per  cent  for  two  years.  A 

16Peoria  Register,  July  i,  1837,  Ju'y  28»  l838- 

19  Chicago  American,  January  14,  1837;  Chicago  Democrat,  March  9,  May 
4,  July  20,  1836;  Executive  Documents,  25  congress,  3  session,  number  241. 


SETTLEMENT   OF  THE   NORTH        183 

lesser  annoyance  was  the  seeming  caprice  of  land  office  receiv- 
ers in  the  designation  of  the  bank  notes  which  they  would 
accept.  Frequently  it  was  charged  that,  by  refusing  to  take 
the  money  brought  to  them,  the  receivers  compelled  the  buyers 
to  pay  a  brokerage  of  from  two  to  five  per  cent  to  have  it 
"shaved"  by  some  local  financier.  Land  office  officials  were 
often  charged  with  trickery  and  with  speculation  in  this  and 
other  ways.20 

As  has  been  said  before  the  determination  of  the  national 
public  land  policy  turned  on  the  fact  that  the  economic  interests 
of  east  and  west  and  their  theories  of  the  purpose  of  the  public 
domain  were  fundamentally  different.  To  the  easterner  the 
public  land  was  the  heritage  of  the  states,  bought  by  the  blood 
of  their  sons  in  the  Revolution,  and  the  pledge  of  national 
unity  and  good  faith.  To  him  as  to  Alexander  Hamilton  it 
was  the  source  of  a  fund  for  public  finance,  not  the  future 
home  of  a  great  part  of  the  American  people.21  Indeed  as  the 
easterner  saw  settlers  flocking  into  the  new  lands  of  the  west 
draining  eastern  towns  of  labor  and  leaving  the  farms  in  the 
old  cradles  of  liberty  to  revert  to  wilderness,  he  sometimes  did 
not  attempt  to  conceal  his  dislike  of  western  settlement  and  his 
desire  to  retard  its  progress.  To  the  westerner  who  com- 
plained that  settlement  was  too  slow  and  who  called  for  legis- 
lation to  accelerate  it,  he  listened  with  ill-concealed  derision. 

Against  the  squatter,  that  typical  western  figure,  the 
easterner's  wrath  was  especially  aroused.  He  considered  him 
a  worthless  trespasser  on  the  public  property,  whose  trespasses 
had  repeatedly  to  be  condoned  by  preemption  acts.  Said 
Samuel  A.  Foot :  "  The  disposal  of  the  public  lands  has  been, 
in  this  way,  absolutely  wrested  from  the  Government,  and 
monopolized  by  speculators  and  squatters;  land  system  is  vir- 
tually broken  down,  and  we  are  gravely  told,  *  it  is  best  for  us 

20  Pe or'ta  Register,  August  4,  September  29,  November   17,   1838;    Chicago 
American,  October   7,   18,  26,  November   i,    1839;   Sangamo   Journal,  June  25, 
July  30,  1836. 

21  Congressional  Debates,  1830-1831,  p.  471.     Ohio  was  passing  out  of  the 
ranks  of  the  public  land  states.    Ibid.,  1831-1832,  p.  1452. 


184  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

it  should  be  so,'  and  nothing  remains  for  us  but  to  give  the 
squatters  preemption  rights;  and,  instead  of  legislating  for 
them,  we  are  to  legislate  after  them,  in  full  pursuit  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  or  to  the  Pacific  Ocean."  22  In  the  mind  of  the 
easterner  the  squatter  was  a  prolific  source  of  trouble  with  the 
Indians,  equally  galling  to  the  humanitarian  sentimentalists 
from  districts  that  had  not  heard  the  war  whoop  since  Queen 
Anne's  War  and  to  the  thrifty  public  financiers.  Of  the  squat- 
ter's lauded  services  as  a  pioneer  of  settlement,  the  eastern 
congressman  was  frankly  skeptical. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  the  westerner  from  the  public  land 
state  the  vacant  national  domain  appeared  as  the  source  of 
freeholds  for  uncounted  thousands,  the  basis  of  the  majesty 
and  power  of  great  commonwealths.  Only  let  the  govern- 
ment unbar  the  gate  and  all  this  dream  would  speedily  be  real- 
ized. Meanwhile,  so  long  as  men  without  money  had  to  squat 
without  title  upon  the  public  domain  and  men  with  money  had 
to  limit  the  extent  of  their  exploitation  by  the  high  government 
price  of  wild  land,  all  these  advantages  were  postponed.  States 
sat  with  the  greater  portion  of  their  lands  under  the  control  of 
a  landlord  who  elected  to  keep  it  desert,  yielding  no  revenue 
to  the  state,  adding  nothing  to  its  population  and  wealth.  The 
public  land  policy,  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  easterner  was 
draining  the  older  states  of  population,  to  the  mind  of  the 
westerner  was  locking  up  the  west  from  settlement.  The  one 
trembled  at  the  rapidity  of  change  and  development,  the  other 
fretted  because  he  saw  how  much  more  rapid  settlement  might 
become  under  more  liberal  land  laws. 

The  debate  on  Foot's  resolution,  which  was  designed  to 
limit  the  sale  of  public  lands  by  forcing  the  sale  of  those  already 
on  the  market,  apart  from  its  significance  in  constitutional  his- 
tory, places  the  two  points  of  view  in  sharp  contrast.  To  the 
westerner  it  appeared  that  the  Connecticut  senator's  inquiry, 
by  stopping  surveys,  would  leave  only  undesirable  and  picked 
over  lands  in  the  west,  would  cut  off  emigration  to  states  like 

22  Congressional  Debates,  1829-1830,  p.  443. 


SETTLEMENT   OF   THE   NORTH        185 

Illinois,  and  would  close  for  many  years  to  come  the  northern 
half  of  its  domain.23  Robert  Y.  Hayne  had  been  quick  to 
point  out  to  the  west  that  its  true  friends  lived  in  the  south  and 
the  debate  resolved  itself  in  its  earlier  phases  into  an  argument 
between  Webster  and  Benton  as  to  whether  or  not  the  tradi- 
tional New  England  policy  was  to  hamper  the  west.  Benton, 
eschewing  the  internal  improvements  that  the  east  proffered 
the  west  through  the  American  system,  elected  to  stand  fast 
with  the  south  in  an  alliance  based  on  free  trade  and  liberal 
public  land  policy;  and  in  its  broader  outlines  that  alliance 
comprehends  the  history  of  the  older  democracy  until  the  dis- 
aster of  1840. 

The  western  land  policy  generally  supported  in  congress 
was  that  of  Thomas  Hart  Benton.  It  is  true  that  in  Illinois 
politics  Edwards'  doctrine  of  the  state's  right  to  the  public 
lands  persisted  till  1833,  and  its  revival  in  congress  by  a  Mis- 
souri representative  in  1839  merely  embarrassed  Benton  and 
the  advocates  of  his  policy  by  serving  as  a  red  rag  to  arouse 
the  east.  Clay  cleverly  sought  to  connect  Edwards'  policy 
with  Benton's.24  "The  Senator,"  he  said,  "modestly  claimed 
only  an  old  smoked,  rejected  joint;  but  the  stomach  of  his 
Excellency  yearned  after  the  whole  hog!"25  The  outlines  of 
Benton's  policy  of  graduation,  the  scaling  down  year  by  year 
of  the  price  of  unsold  land,  and  preemption,  the  allowing  of 
special  purchase  privileges  to  actual  settlers,  has  already  been 
outlined.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that  preemption  measures 
were  intended  to  enable  the  small  buyer  to  earn  on  the  public 
land  enough  to  acquire  title  to  a  farm;  graduation  measures 
by  successive  reductions  of  price  were  designed  to  bring  onto 
the  market  parts  of  the  older  west,  such  as  southern  Illinois, 
that  still  were  thinly  settled.26 

The  east  and  the  whig  party,  as  the  diminution  of  the 

23  Congressional  Debates,  1829-1830,  p.  4,  n,  23,  44,  6p,  96. 

24  Illinois  Intelligencer,  April   16,  May  21,   1831;  Illinois  Advocate,  Janu- 
ary 26,  1833;  Sangamo  Journal,  April  19,  1823. 

25  Congressional  Debates,  1831-1832,  p.  1102. 

26  Ibid.,  1829-1830,  p.  8. 


186  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

public  debt  seemed  about  to  force  a  new  disposal  of  the  public 
land  revenue  allotted  to  its  discharge,  were  obliged  to  find  a 
rival  public  land  policy.  They  found  it  in  the  distribution 
measure  first  proposed  in  1832  by  Henry  Clay,  a  westerner, 
but  not  a  citizen  of  a  public  land  state.  Clay's  policy  proposed 
the  distribution  among  the  states  of  the  revenue  from  the  sale 
of  the  public  land,  with  especially  favorable  consideration  to 
western  states.  The  measure  was  adroitly  conceived  that  the 
west  might  be  conciliated  by  the  offered  sop  of  hard  cash.  The 
east,  its  framers  hoped,  would  welcome  a  measure  which  would 
postpone  the  necessity  for  reducing  the  price  of  the  public 
lands  and  would  prevent  the  immediate  drain  of  factory 
operatives  to  cheap  lands  in  the  west.  The  supporters  of  the 
policy  designed  to  enlist  the  aid  of  the  old  advocates  of  the 
American  system  by  laying  stress  on  the  state  works  of  internal 
improvement  which  the  distributed  funds  might  initiate. 
Above  all,  the  measure  was  in  their  intent  one  step  in  the 
direction  of  federalization  of  power. 

Distribution  remained  a  standing  whig  policy  for  years  to 
come,  and  Benton  accepted  its  challenge.  He  avowed  openly 
that  distribution  must  be  defeated  before  his  measures  could 
be  adopted,  and  he  once  more  summoned  the  south  to  an 
alliance  with  the  west.  A  distribution  measure  was  passed  in 
1833,  however,  but  was  vetoed  by  the  president.  Meanwhile 
there  was  passed  a  series  of  acts  granting  preemptions  for 
short  terms  of  years  —  in  1830  for  two  years,  in  1833  and  in 
i834.27 

In  1835—1836  a  further  development  in  what  may  be  called 
the  western  land  policy  took  place  under  the  initiative  of  Sena- 
tor Robert  J.  Walker  of  Mississippi,  a  state  still  as  much 
western  as  southern.  The  tremendous  sales  of  1834  and  1835 
in  Illinois  had  provoked  the  fear  that  the  public  domain  would 
pass  into  the  hands  of  speculators,  and  Walker  to  prevent  it 
proposed  a  preemption  and  graduation  measure  designed  to 

27  Congressional  Debates,  1829-1830,  p.  n,  44;  ibid.,  1831-1832,  p.  785,  903, 
1148,  1167;  ibid.,  1836-1837,  p.  789. 


SETTLEMENT   OF  THE   NORTH        187 

limit  sales  to  actual  settlers  in  quantities  not  exceeding  a  sec- 
tion. Emphatically  this  would  have  benefited  the  small  farmer 
of  the  north  rather  than  the  planter  of  the  south.  Concerning 
this  measure,  Clay  prophesied  that  if  it  were  passed  the  public 
domain  was  gone.  Even  some  of  the  western  senators  opposed 
it.  Calhoun's  alternative  measure,  which  proposed  to  cede 
the  lands  to  the  several  states  for  one-third  their  proceeds, 
procured  him  some  passing  popularity  in  the  west.28 

Distribution  in  the  form  of  deposit  with  the  states  suc- 
ceeded in  congress  in  1836,  after  it  was  apparent  that  a  pure 
distribution  measure  could  not  be  passed  over  Jackson's  veto. 
Meanwhile  the  land  speculator  was  becoming  a  more  and  more 
disturbing  problem,  and  his  ubiquity  is  revealed  by  his  figuring 
as  a  type  character  in  the  newspapers  of  that  day.  Walker 
designed  his  suppression,  as  has  been  seen,  through  preemption. 
Benton  characteristically  aimed  at  the  same  result  by  a  proposal 
that  only  gold  and  silver  be  received  in  payment  for  lands;  and 
this  proposal  was  finally  embodied  in  Jackson's  specie  circular, 
which,  Benton  pronounced,  had  itself  served  as  a  preemption 
act.29 

In  Illinois  as  elsewhere  the  whigs  and  democrats  took 
ground  on  the  rival  land  policies,  and  Illinois  elected  to  adopt 
the  democratic  policy.  Benton's  policy,  in  1831  and  1832, 
found  indorsement  by  the  Illinois  legislature  and  in  public 
meetings.30  Preemption  in  1834  was  a  popular  measure. 
Duncan,  however,  voted  for  the  distribution  act  of  1833,  which 
met  the  opposition  of  the  Illinois  Jackson  papers  and  politi- 
cians; the  Sangamo  Journal  favored  it.  The  issue  was  also 
drawn  in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1836,  the  whigs  advo- 
cating distribution  as  a  measure  which  would  give  the  state  a 
fund  for  internal  improvements.  In  1837  the  Illinois  senate 
approved  Walker's  measure.  Van  Buren's  first  message, 
deprecating  temporary  preemption  acts  as  inducing  a  disregard 

28  Congressional  Debates,  1835-1836,  p.  1028,  ibid.,  1836-1837,  p.  663,  733; 
Congressional  Globe,  25  congress,  3  session,  appendix,  44  ff. 

29  Ibid.,  25  congress,  2  session,  appendix,  291  ff. 

30  House  Journal,  1832-1833,  i  session,  740. 


i88  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

for  law,  advocated  graduation  by  quality;  but  the  Illinois 
papers  pointed  out  that  this  proposal  showed  no  more  friend- 
ship for  the  west  than  Clay's  plan.  Clay  indeed,  no  longer 
"Harry  of  the  West,"  suffered  the  consequences  of  his  con- 
temptuous remarks  on  squatters  which  were  noted  down  by  R. 
M.  Young  for  use  against  him  in  Illinois.31 

In  the  end,  the  public  land  policy  acted  upon  by  these  two 
opposing  forces  remained  stationary.  On  the  one  side  the 
whigs  were  never  able  to  secure  a  full  measure  of  distribution ; 
on  the  other,  while  the  democrats  in  1841  secured  a  permanent 
preemption  measure,  they  never  achieved  graduation.  Yet  the 
democrats  throughout  had  stood  more  or  less  consistently  for 
the  interests  of  the  western  settler  and  in  their  policy  was  the 
germ  of  the  homestead  legislation,  that  prevented  the  total 
eclipse  of  the  small  freehold  domain  in  the  west.  Whether 
graduation  would  have  assisted  the  penniless  farm  laborer,  or 
whether  it  would  only  have  depreciated  the  holdings  of  those 
who  had  already  bought  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  land  specu- 
lators cannot  be  said.  The  democratic  party,  however,  es- 
poused the  policy  that  looked  particularly  to  the  development 
of  the  west;  and  it  is  significant  that  Illinois,  generally  indorse- 
ing  that  policy,  gave  its  votes  to  the  party  that  maintained  it. 
On  public  lands,  as  on  other  matters,  the  party  of  Andrew 
Jackson  was  still  the  party  of  the  west. 

After  a  digression,  in  which  has  been  noticed  the  influence 
of  the  settlement  of  northern  and  central  Illinois  on  the  state's 
political  course,  a  return  may  be  made  to  the  consideration  of 
a  more  obvious  result  from  settlement  —  development  of  com- 
merce and  the  consequent  demand  for  more  adequate 
transportation.  Indeed  the  great  speculative  public  land  sales 
of  1834-1837  may  be  regarded  as  the  decisive  cause  of  the 
more  than  speculative  internal  improvement  scheme  on  which 

31  Illinois  Advocate,  October  5,  1833;  Alton  Spectator,  December  28,  1833; 
Alton  American,  January  3,  1834;  Sangamo  Journal,  August  10,  1833,  March  12, 
April  2,  June  25,  July  2,  July  16,  1836,  May  10,  1838;  Chicago  American,  Janu- 
ary 30,  1836;  Illinois  State  Register,  June  24,  August  19,  1836;  Senate  Journal, 
1835-1836,  i  session,  80,  85;  Congressional  Globe,  25  congress,  3  session,  ap- 
pendix, 225. 


SETTLEMENT   OF   THE   NORTH        189 

the  state  embarked  in  1837.  That  system  and  the  state's  later 
attempts  to  extricate  itself  from  the  ruin  it  brought  divides  the 
pioneer  period  of  the  state's  history  from  the  era  of  transition. 

Some  notice  has  already  been  paid  to  the  meteoric  rise  of 
Chicago  in  the  commercial  field;  but  the  city  which  showed  the 
steadiest  commercial  development  in  the  decade  was  Alton. 
Alton  had  been  hampered  at  the  beginning  of  its  career  by  liti- 
gation over  the  title  to  its  site,  and  its  aspirations  to  rival  St. 
Louis  had  led  it  into  a  long  drawn  out  and  fruitless  struggle  to 
procure  the  passage  of  the  Cumberland  road  through  it  rather 
than  through  St.  Louis.  It  had  been  some  time  before  Alton 
succeeded  in  enlisting  the  full  strength  of  Illinois  on  its  side. 
By  1831,  however,  the  city  was  making  rapid  progress  in  im- 
portance as  a  produce  market.  New  England  capital  came  to 
its  support.  Griggs,  Manning,  and  Company  offered  St.  Louis 
prices  for  produce,  calling  for  forty  thousand  bushels  of  wheat 
and  offering  to  execute  commissions  in  the  east  at  a  charge  of 
two  and  one-half  per  cent.32  By  1835  there  were  at  least  three 
firms  of  commission  and  forwarding  merchants  in  business  in 
the  city;  beef,  pork,  lard,  whisky,  furs,  flour,  lead  were  coming 
in  for  export  from  Quincy  and  Galena  as  well  as  from  Alton's 
natural  hinterland.  Apparently  tributary  to  Alton  were  num- 
erous small  towns  where  storekeepers  bought  of  its  whole- 
sale merchants  and  forwarded  local  produce  to  its  market. 

Business  methods  in  Illinois  were  from  the  modern  point  of 
view  somewhat  rudimentary.  Alton  merchants  sold  old  stocks 
of  goods  at  auction  to  country  merchants  on  long  credit.  Col- 
lections everywhere  were  slow,  a  favorite  business  principle 
being  that  in  hard  times  one  did  better  by  not  driving  his  debtor 
to  extremities.  Newspapers,  it  is  true,  preached  the  modern 
gospel  that  true  advertising  consists  in  setting  forth  your  wares 
in  such  fashion  as  to  create  a  desire  for  them;  and  they  laid 
down  the  rule  that  the  true  index  of  a  town's  business  was  the 
newspaper  advertising  of  its  merchants.  Yet  even  while  they 

32  Alton  Spectator,  May  14,  October  23,  1832,  January  22,  27,  1833,  Decem- 
ber 31,  1835. 


i9o  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

urged  this  precocious  wisdom  on  their  patrons,  they  felt  it 
necessary  to  advise  them  to  show  civility  and  courtesy  to  their 
customers  and  to  warn  them  to  beware  of  expecting  every  man 
who  was  shown  goods  to  purchase.33 

Galena  in  1830  was  a  typical  mining  town  which  had 
grown  up  between  1823  and  1829  with  the  rise  of  lead  produc- 
tion from  335,130  pounds  to  13,343,150.  The  population 
was  migratory,  the  miners  coming  to  work  in  the  lead  mines 
in  summer  and  most  of  them  returning  south  in  winter.  It  was 
a  typical  bonanza  town  with  wages  as  high  as  twenty-five  dol- 
lars a  month  and  speculatively  high  rents,  until  the  fall  in  the 
price  of  lead  in  1829  produced  genuine  hard  times.  Even  in 
1837  a  two-story  frame  store  rented  for  eight  hundred  dollars 
a  year,  and  lots  were  held  at  two  hundred  dollars  a  foot.  The 
federal  government  in  1829  was  still  the  landlord,  leasing  the 
lead  mines  on  shares  which  were  hard  to  collect.  In  1829  it 
provided  for  a  sale  of  town  lots  to  holders,  which  curiously 
enough  aroused  some  local  opposition.  In  the  thirties  a  doc- 
trine, which  had  considerable  vogue,  that  the  federal  govern- 
ment could  not  constitutionally  lease  its  land  made  the  collection 
of  rents  almost  impossible ;  and  the  commissioner  of  the  general 
land  office  as  well  as  the  state  legislature  urged  the  sale  of  the 
mineral  lands  to  private  holders.34 

The  most  significant  natural  development  in  transportation 
between  1830  and  1840  was  the  establishment  of  a  network  of 
communication  lines  radiating  from  Chicago.  Chicago's 
career  began  as  a  distributing  point  for  merchandise  brought 
by  the  Great  Lakes  route.  In  1831  Enoch  C.  March  imported 
goods  to  St.  Louis  via  Chicago  at  one-third  less  cost  than  by 
way  of  New  Orleans.  In  1833  O.  Newberry  shipped  several 
hundred  barrels  of  beef  from  Chicago  to  New  York  via  Albany 
at  a  cost  of  only  thirteen  dollars  a  ton.  In  1834  weekly  ar- 

33 Alton  American,  December  13,  1833;  Galena  Advertiser,  August  31, 
1829;  Peoria  Register,  May  26,  1838;  Sangamo  Journal,  July  13,  1833. 

34  Galena  Advertiser,  July  20,  August  3,  September  14,  November  9,  1829, 
February  8,  15,  1830;  Peoria  Register,  October  21,  1837;  Illinois  Intelligencer, 
October  7,  1831;  Miner's  Journal,  July  22,  September  20,  1828;  Senate  Docu- 
ments, 25  congress,  2  session,  number  131. 


SETTLEMENT   OF  THE   NORTH        191 

rivals  of  steamers  from  Buffalo  were  advertised.  In  1835, 
255  sailing  ships  arrived  at  Chicago;  in  1836,  49  steamboats 
and  383  sailing  ships.  By  1839  there  was  a  full-fledged  steam- 
boat pool  which  divided  profits  according  to  tonnage.  Chicago 
merchants,  not  content  with  three  weeks  time  and  aspiring  for 
even  quicker  and  cheaper  transportation,  hoped  that  the  New 
York  and  Erie  railroad  would  enable  freight  to  be  shipped 
through  as  early  as  March  10  while  the  Erie  canal  was  still 
frozen.  Once  this  railroad  and  those  across  Michigan  were 
in  operation,  it  was  said  New  York  and  Chicago  would  be  only 
seventy-four  hours  apart.35  Even  with  the  twelve  to  fourteen 
days  which  was  the  minimum  time  required  for  freight  between 
Chicago  and  the  east  in  1839,  there  were  great  possibilities  in 
supplying  other  Illinois  markets;  thus  it  was  believed  that 
Galena  could  get  goods  two  months  quicker  and  much  cheaper 
by  way  of  Chicago.  For  penetrating  the  central  part  of  the 
state,  there  was  the  Illinois  river  which  was  navigable  as  far 
up  as  Peoria  or  even  Ottawa.  The  bad  roads  above  Peru, 
however,  were  a  serious  difficulty,  in  rendering  it  a  route  of 
commerce  tributary  to  Chicago. 

Indeed  the  Illinois  river  for  a  time  seemed  more  likely  to 
become  the  trunk  line  of  a  considerable  transportation  system 
tributary  to  the  Mississippi.  In  1828  steamers  went  up  to 
Naples,  in  1829  to  Pekin,  in  1830  to  Peoria.  In  1831  there 
were  186  steamer  arrivals  at  Naples,  32  at  Beardstown,  and 
17  at  Peoria.  In  1837  the  Peoria  Register  advertised  seven 
packets  to  ply  between  Peoria  and  St.  Louis  and  one  between 
Peoria  and  Pittsburg.  Nevertheless  there  were  serious  diffi- 
culties. The  bar  at  Beardstown  was  a  particularly  obstinate 
handicap.  In  even  the  most  favorable  seasons  navigation  was 
practically  at  an  end  in  September.  Even  thus,  Naples, 
Beardstown,  and  Peoria  enjoyed  direct  commercial  relations 
with  the  outside  world  at  Pittsburg  and  New  Orleans.  In 
1838  Peoria  had  a  daily  stage  to  Springfield  which  linked  it 

35  Illinois  Advocate,  October  21,  November  n,  1831;  Chicago  Democrat, 
June  4,  1834;  Alton  Spectator,  July  9,  1833;  Chicago  American,  September  26, 
November  21,  December  5,  1835. 


i92  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

with  Terre  Haute  and  St.  Louis,  as  well  as  triweekly  stages  to 
Galena,  Ottawa,  and  Rushville  and  semiweekly  ones  to 
Oquawka.86 

Even  from  the  earlier  settlements  the  smaller  rivers  of 
Illinois  had  served  for  the  transportation  of  freight.  The 
Talisman's  trip  up  the  Sangamon  is  well  known.  As  early  as 
1829  flatboats  with  cargoes  of  lead  descended  the  Pecatonica 
and  the  Rock.  In  1836  a  steamer  ascended  the  Rock  as  far  as 
Dixon  and  in  1838  as  far  as  Rockford.  In  1839  there  was  a 
St.  Louis  and  Rock  river  packet. 

The  Mississippi,  however,  remained  the  state's  most  im- 
portant transportation  route,  and  the  ease  of  its  navigation 
brought  prosperity  to  the  towns  along  its  banks.  In  1839 
Savanna,  a  town  of  two  hundred  fifty  inhabitants,  was  sending 
four  hundred  tons  of  freight  a  year  to  Oregon,  Rockford, 
Freeport,  Beloit,  and  Elkhorn.  In  1837  Monmouth  imported 
from  St.  Louis  through  Oquawka.  Alton  and  Galena  have 
already  been  mentioned;  Warsaw  and  Nauvoo  belong  to  a 
later  period.87 

In  the  midst  of  wild  land  speculations,  it  was  inevitable 
that  calculations  of  the  cost  of  bringing  produce  to  market 
from  some  "  Stone's  Landing,"  portentously  rechristened 
"  Napoleon,"  should  have  an  important  part.  Already  fair 
transportation  routes  were  in  existence;  the  question  was  how 
to  improve  them.  The  federal  government  would  improve 
the  Mississippi;  in  a  liberal  mood  it  had  already  endowed  the 
Illinois  and  Michigan  water  route  that  would  allow  Chicago 
merchants  to  take  their  toll  of  what  passed  in  and  out  by  the 
lakes.  To  improve  such  rivers  as  the  Illinois  and  the  Rock 
by  state  enterprise  was  feasible.  Men  were  not  content,  how- 
ever, with  these  comparatively  modest  improvements.  Not 
only  were  the  "Goose  Runs"  of  Illinois  to  be  improved  into 


Register,  July  i,  1837,  April  7,  September  15,  December  8,  1838, 
July  27,  August  17,  1839;  Chicago  American,  July  6,  August  31,  1839;  Chi- 
cago Democrat,  February  10,  1836;  Sangamo  Journal,  February  9,  1832;  Illinois 
Intelligencer,  November  19,  1831. 

87  Sangamo   Journal,  November  28,   1835;   Peoria  Register,  April   i,   1837, 
April  27,  May  12,  1838,  October  12,  1839. 


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SETTLEMENT   OF  THE   NORTH        193 

"  Columbus  Rivers,"  but  scarcely  five  years  had  passed  since 
the  railroad  had  demonstrated  its  practicability,  before 
dreamers  in  Illinois  were  devising  routes  by  which  the  new 
discovery  might  give  fabulous  values  to  the  lands  away  from 
the  water  routes.  A  state  wide  mania  for  improved  transpor- 
tation ended  in  logrollings  and  bargains  which  initiated  a  state 
system  of  internal  improvements  based  on  calculations  imperial 
enough  to  have  originated  in  the  brain  of  Beriah  Sellers 
himself. 


X.  THE  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENT  SYSTEM 

THE  internal  improvement  scheme  of  1837  is  not  only 
the  opening  of  a  new  era  in  the  state's  history;  it  is  also 
the  climax  of  the  former  one.  The  various  threads  of  the 
state's  political  and  economic  interests  —  the  desire  of  southern 
Illinois  for  an  equivalent  to  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal, 
the  local  rivalries  over  the  location  of  the  state  capital,  the 
aspirations  of  land  speculators  —  all  were  woven  together  to 
produce  the  fabric  of  the  internal  improvement  system.  It 
can  indeed  be  most  easily  explained  if  each  thread  be  fol- 
lowed separately  to  the  point  where  it  intertwines  with  the 
others. 

The  problem  of  connecting  the  waters  of  the  Great  Lakes 
at  Chicago  with  the  Illinois  river  seemed  enticingly  simple. 
The  Des  Plaines  branch  of  the  Illinois  flows  south  parallel  to 
the  lake  shore  and  sometimes  not  ten  miles  away  from  it. 
Moreover  the  two  branches  of  the  Chicago  river,  uniting  from 
north  and  south  to  flow  into  the  lake,  contribute  to  lessen  even 
that  distance.  Between  the  south  branch  and  the  Des  Plaines 
lay  in  dry  weather  a  portage  of  no  longer  than  three  miles,  and 
in  the  wet  season  a  lake  or  slough  five  miles  long  and  six  to 
forty  yards  wide  through  which  Mackinaw  boats  of  six  and 
eight  tons  could  pass  into  the  Illinois  without  a  portage.  So 
nearly  even  were  the  levels  of  the  two  rivers  that  the  change 
of  the  breeze  would  float  objects  from  the  "  lake  "  now  into 
Lake  Michigan,  now  into  the  Des  Plaines.  This  route,  unim- 
proved as  it  was,  was  regularly  followed  by  the  fur  traders  of 
Mackinac.1 

The  engineering  problem,  though  simple  in  appearance, 
was  in  reality  extremely  difficult.  Since  the  bed  of  the  Des 
Plaines  was  in  1819  estimated  to  be  some  two  feet  higher  than 

1  American  State  Papers,  Miscellaneous,  2:  555. 

194 


INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT   SYSTEM   195 

the  lake,  a  bed  channel  would  simply  have  turned  the  waters  of 
the  river  into  the  lake.  To  correct  this  difficulty2  Major 
Stephen  Long  recommended  the  construction  of  two  locks  at 
the  two  ends  of  the  slough ;  but  the  opinion  was  generally  held 
that  in  the  dry  season  there  would  not  be  enough  water  to 
operate  them  and  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  construct  the 
canal  to  a  lower  point,  somewhere  near  the  falls  of  the  Des 
Plaines.  There  was  of  course  also  the  possibility  of  using  some 
other  portage,  for  instance  that  to  the  Kankakee,  or  that  from 
the  St.  Joseph  or  Maumee  to  the  Wabash,  all  of  which  were 
enumerated  in  the  engineers'  report  of  1819. 

At  the  beginning  Illinois  was  concerned  rather  with  obtain- 
ing means  to  construct  the  canal  than  with  the  engineering 
problem  involved.  After  some  differences  both  houses  of  the 
second  general  assembly  concurred  in  a  resolution  directing  the 
congressional  delegates  to  work  for  a  grant  of  the  two  per  cent 
fund  reserved  for  roads  and  of  a  strip  of  land  a  section  wide 
along  the  canal  route  to  the  Illinois  river.  At  the  next  session 
of  congress  in  accordance  with  a  resolution  offered  by  Cook, 
an  act  was  passed  granting  a  strip  ninety  feet  wide  on  each 
side  of  the  canal  and  reserving  from  sale  the  adjoining  sections. 

Meanwhile,  the  canal  had  become  a  subject  of  newspaper 
discussion  apparently  both  as  a  political  question  and  as  a 
matter  of  sectional  rivalry.  In  1822  articles  began  to  point 
out  the  importance  of  a  route  to  market  other  than  that  through 
New  Orleans.3  For  this  very  reason  it  was  generally  supposed 
that  southeastern  Illinois  would  be  opposed  to  a  project  that 
would  tax  that  region  to  destroy  its  monopoly  of  the  route  to 
market  via  the  Mississippi.  Opposition  developed  a  second 
time  in  the  general  assembly  of  1822—1823,  when  A.  P.  Field 
proposed  once  more  to  memoralize  congress  to  apply  the  two 
per  cent  fund  to  digging  the  canal.  A  canal  bill  after  vicissi- 
tudes apparently  promoted  by  members  representing  constitu- 

2  American  State  Papers,  Miscellaneous,  2:555.     Since  the  foregoing  was 
written  the  full  account  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  by  J.  W.  Putnam 
has  appeared.    See  also  Annals  of  Congress,  17  congress,  i  session,  2586. 

3  Illinois  Intelligencer,  November  30,  1822. 


i96  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

encies  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Wabash  rivers  was  finally  passed, 
February  10,  1823.  Curiously  enough  it  was  finally  reported 
back  to  the  house  the  same  day  with  the  convention  resolutions, 
probably  both  as  parts  of  the  same  bargain.4 

As  finally  passed,  the  bill  provided  for  five  commissioners 
to  lay  out  a  route  for  a  canal  and  to  calculate  its  cost;  it 
directed  them  further  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  governors 
of  Indiana  and  Ohio  the  desirability  of  improving  the  Wabash 
and  the  Maumee  rivers.5  The  commissioners  tried  in  vain  to 
get  the  services  of  New  York  canal  engineers,  but  finally  were 
content  with  Justus  Post  to  whom  later  they  added  Rene  Paul. 

The  legislature  of  1825  determined  to  turn  the  enterprise 
over  to  a  private  corporation  which  it  created,  consisting  of 
Coles,  Bond,  Post,  Erasmus  Brown,  W.  S.  Hamilton,  Joseph 
Duncan,  and  John  Warnock,  who  were  to  receive  all  canal 
grants  and  complete  a  canal  in  ten  years ;  they  were  permitted 
to  charge  a  toll  of  one-half  cent  per  ton  per  mile  on  tonnage  of 
boats  through  it,  three  cents  on  Illinois  produce  or  merchandise, 
six  cents  on  foreign  merchandise,  and  eight  cents  on  all  else. 
In  fifty  years  the  state  might  buy  the  canal  for  cost  plus  six  per 
cent  interest. 

Congressman  Cook  could  hardly  have  been  expected  to 
approve  this  scheme.  His  political  opponents  were  in  control 
of  it;  it  was  contrary  to  the  solution  at  which  he  himself  had 
been  working — a  generous  congressional  land  grant.  During 
the  session  of  1823—1824,  he  had  attempted  to  unite  the  inter- 
ests of  the  enterprise  with  those  of  similar  ones  in  which  other 
states  might  join  and  to  secure  a  grant  to  the  state  of  lands 
along  the  canal  reserved  from  sale  by  the  federal  government.6 
In  November  of  1825,  therefore,  he  published  an  address 
urging  a  repeal  of  the  canal  act.  In  part  his  argument  was 
that  the  sum  of  money  which  it  would  finally  be  necessary 
to  raise  to  purchase  the  canal  would  be  huge.  He,  therefore, 
advised  borrowing  on  the  credit  of  the  school  lands  and  the 

4  House  Journal,  1822-1823,  1  session,  262. 

5  Laws  of  1823,  p.  151. 

eAnnals  of  Congress,  18  congress,  i  session,  873,  1914. 


INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENT  SYSTEM  197 

three  per  cent  school  fund,  or  better  still  seeking  aid  from  the 
government ;  in  the  latter  case  he  possibly  intended  to  combine 
the  project  with  one  for  an  armory  on  the  Illinois  or  Fox  river. 
By  an  optimistic  calculation  he  sought  to  show  that  the  probable 
increase  of  Illinois  population  and  of  traffic  would  enable  the 
state  to  finance  the  canal  from  the  tolls.  He  was  on  safer 
ground  when  he  pointed  out  the  danger  to  the  state  of  placing 
such  a  transportation  monopoly  in  private  hands  and  of  the 
chance  that  it  would  control  the  politics  of  the  state.  Cook's 
figures  were  attacked,  but  his  argument  against  the  monopoly 
was  not  destroyed.  As  the  Edwardsville  Spectator  pointed 
out,  his  opponents  had  to  admit  that  the  terms  of  the  act  were 
too  unfavorable  to  the  state ;  yet  it  was  impossible  to  interest 
investors  on  less  favorable  terms.  The  legislature,  meeting 
in  special  session  January,  1826,  to  redistrict  the  state,  repealed 
the  act,  the  senate  voting  fourteen  to  three.7 

In  congress  a  bill  for  a  canal  grant  had  been  brought  up  in 
the  session  of  1825  and  again  in  1826.  The  Intelligencer 
alleged  that  it  suffered  from  the  jealousy  of  Mississippi  and 
Louisiana  members,  who  feared  that  trade  would  be  deflected 
from  New  Orleans.  Finally  in  1827,  the  act  was  passed.  It 
granted  the  state  one-half  the  land  to  a  depth  of  five  sections 
on  each  side  of  the  canal,  reserving  for  the  benefit  of  the  United 
States  all  alternate  sections;  the  canal  was  to  be  toll  free  to 
the  United  States  government  and  was  to  be  begun  in  five 
years  and  completed  in  twenty.  The  act  may  perhaps  be 
regarded  as  a  last  triumph  of  the  liberal  internal  improvement 
policy  of  the  administration;  it  was  certainly  regarded  as  a 
triumph  in  Illinois.8 

Two  successive  Illinois  assemblies  undertook  to  utilize 
the  grant  thus  obtained.  An  act  was  passed  in  1829  which 
provided  for  the  biennial  appointment  by  governor  and  senate 
of  three  commissioners,  one  of  whom  was  to  act  as  treasurer. 

7  Illinois  Intelligencer,  November  25,  1825;  Edwardsville  Spectator,  Decem- 
ber 3,  1825;  Senate  Journal,  1826,  2  session,  58. 

8  Illinois    Intelligencer,    March    25,    1825,    April    21,    1827;    Congressional 
Debates,  1826-1827,  appendix,  xviii. 


198  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

They  were  to  survey  a  route,  to  select  the  land  granted  by 
the  United  States,  and  to  sell  it  in  tracts  or  in  town  lots.  They 
were  to  use  the  funds  obtained  as  soon  as  practicable  for  the 
construction  of  a  canal,  four  feet  deep  and  forty  feet  wide  at 
the  surface.  This  act,  which  as  can  be  seen  was  very  loosely 
drawn,  was  amended  in  1831  so  as  to  increase  the  efficiency 
of  the  board.9  It  raised  the  question  of  the  practicability  of 
improving  the  navigation  on  the  Illinois  river  below  the  Fox 
in  lieu  of  the  lower  route  of  the  canal,  and  also  the  question 
of  the  use  of  the  Calumet  as  a  feeder  below  the  Chicago  and 
the  Des  Plaines;  but  of  greater  importance  it  raised  the  more 
fundamental  question  whether  a  railroad  might  not  serve  the 
state  better  than  a  canal.  The  commissioners,  in  their  report 
of  November  22,  1831,  recommended  on  professional  advice 
the  construction  of  a  railroad  instead  of  a  canal.  During  the 
winter  of  1832  they  made  inquiries  in  New  York  as  to  possible 
financial  supplies  but  without  eliciting  any  offer  which  the  state 
could  accept. 

The  canal  project,  after  a  period  of  quiescence  during 
1833,  became  a  political  issue  of  importance  in  1834;  and 
candidates  for  office  gave  the  matter  much  attention.  Some 
merely  declared  for  the  measure.  Of  those  who  were  more 
specific,  some  advised  the  completion  of  the  enterprise  by  a 
private  company;  others  specifically  declared  against  taxation 
for  it.  In  the  south  there  was  some  attempt  to  move  for  the 
construction  of  a  canal  from  the  Wabash  to  Alton  as  more 
advantageous;  this  proposition  of  course  called  forth  angry 
protests  from  the  north.10 

There  was  much  dissent  from  the  current  opinion  that 
expense  must  be  avoided  at  all  hazards.  The  Chicago  Demo- 
crat denounced  the  proposal  to  endow  a  New  York  company 

9  La<w s  of  1829,  p.  14;  Laws  of  1831,  p.  39. 

10  Alexander  M.  Jenkins,  Alton  American,  June  2,  1834;  Benjamin  Roberts, 
Illinois  Advocate,  July  5,  1834;  James  Evans,  Sangamo  Journal,  July  5,  1834; 
James  Shepherd  and  James  Adams,  ibid.,  July  12,  1834;  William  Alvey,  ibid., 
July  19,  1834;  R.  K.  McLaughlin,  ibid.,  July  26,  1834;  William  B.  Archer,  ibid., 
August  2,  1834;  George  Forquer,  ibid.,  June  25,  1834.  Forquer's  proposal  com- 
prised a  scheme  for  purchase  in  ten  years  for  cost  less  the  value  of  canal  lands. 


INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT   SYSTEM   199 

with  the  canal  lands  and  to  allow  it  to  construct  a  railroad 
instead  of  a  canal.  Would  the  people,  it  asked,  in  order  to 
keep  the  state's  skirts  free  of  debt,  hand  over  canal  lands  that 
in  five  years  would  be  worth  two  millions?11  It  disagreed 
with  the  findings  of  James  M.  Bucklin,  an  engineer  of  promi- 
nence, who  had  been  consulted  by  the  commissioners  in  1831 
as  to  the  relative  desirability  of  a  railroad,  concluding  that 
he  had  overestimated  the  cost  of  a  canal.  Governor  Duncan 
clung  obstinately  to  the  idea  of  a  canal  planned  on  an  elaborate 
scale.  In  his  inaugural  he  urged  that  the  state  proceed  boldly 
with  the  enterprise  relying  on  additional  federal  grants.  He 
presented  the  stock  arguments  for  canals  as  against  rail- 
roads —  permanency  and  freedom  from  repair  costs.  They 
furnished  avenues  of  trade,  so  he  pointed  out,  by  which  farmers 
in  defiance  of  monopoly  might  carry  their  own  produce  to 
market.  With  a  view  of  future  developments  imperial  in  its 
scope  he  suggested  at  the  outset  a  cut  sufficiently  wide  for  a 
steamboat  canal,  except  on  the  summit  level  where  the  cut 
could  later  be  widened;  and  since  the  tolls  would  yield,  in  his 
estimation,  a  revenue  out  of  proportion  to  any  sum  the  work 
could  possibly  cost,  he  urged  the  state  to  undertake  the  work 
on  its  own  account.  A  similar  light-hearted  optimism  had 
marked  his  attitude  toward  the  project,  when  it  was  discussed 
in  congress.12 

In  the  legislative  session  of  1834—1835  the  debates  on  the 
canal  act  turned  on  the  question  as  to  whether  the  faith  of  the 
state  or  merely  the  canal  land  and  its  resources  were  to  be 
pledged  to  the  enterprise.  The  argument  of  the  opponents  of 
state  credit  was  that  if  the  lands  were  as  valuable  as  they 
appeared  to  be  they  should  be  sufficient  to  attract  capital;  but 
the  proposers  of  the  measure  argued  that  capitalists  were 
ignorant  of  the  value  of  the  lands.  As  the  act  was  finally 


Democrat,  April  30,  November  19,  December  17,  1834;  Sangamo 
Journal,  June  21,  1834, 

12  House  Journal,  1834-1835,  i  session,  25;  Chicago  Democrat,  December 
17,  1834,  January  21,  1835,  indorsed  Duncan's  policy.  Sangamo  Journal,  July 
26,  1834. 


200  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

passed,  the  credit  of  the  state  was  not  pledged.  The  division 
on  the  roll  call  was  sharply  north  and  south,  giving  some  color 
to  the  charge  of  the  Chicago  Democrat  that  the  southern  part 
of  the  state  was  trying  to  retard  the  progress  of  the  northern.13 

The  act  of  1835  authorized  the  governor  to  negotiate  a 
loan  not  to  exceed  $500,000  on  the  canal  lands  and  toll  for  the 
construction  of  the  canal.  He  was  to  appoint  with  the  advice 
of  the  senate  a  canal  board  of  five,  distinctly  an  executive  tool 
of  the  governor,  to  construct  a  canal  forty-five  feet  wide  and 
four  deep.  The  method  of  construction  was  not  prescribed. 
Ex-Governor  Edward  Coles  found  in  the  east  that  the  funda- 
mental objection  of  the  capitalists  to  this  loan  was  the  failure 
to  pledge  the  faith  of  the  state  for  the  payment  of  principal 
and  interest.  It  was  pointed  out  that  interest  would  have  to 
be  paid  either  out  of  the  loan  or  from  sales  of  town  lots,  the 
sale  of  which  was  purely  discretionary  with  the  authorities ;  and 
that  it  would  not  be  possible,  in  case  of  default,  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  canal.  Capitalists  regarded  the  transaction  as 
based  too  much  on  the  pleasing  prospect  of  a  further  federal 
grant  which  might  not  be  forthcoming.  The  character  of  the 
security  behind  the  loan  made  it  impossible  to  float  it  in 
Europe,  where  five  per  cent  loans  had  ultimately  to  find  a 
market.  The  northern  friends  of  the  enterprise,  accepting 
Coles'  conclusions,  declared  for  a  special  session  to  formulate 
a  proposition  more  acceptable  from  the  financial  point  of 
view. 

Primarily  for  purposes  of  apportionment  a  special  session 
of  the  legislature  was  held.  Duncan  was  optimistic  as  usual 
in  his  message.  He  predicted  that  the  sale  of  United  States 
lands  at  Chicago  showed  that  the  lands  and  town  lots  owned 
by  the  state,  not  counting  the  additional  grants  that  might  be 
relied  on  from  congress,  were  even  then  worth  from  one  to 
three  millions.  "  It  is  now  no  longer  to  be  dreaded,"  pro- 

13  Chicago  Democrat,  December  24,  1834;  Illinois  Advocate,  February  4, 
n,  1835;  House  Journal,  1834-1835,  i  session,  459.  In  advancing  to  the  third 
reading,  it  was  then  amended  by  striking  out  the  credit  of  the  state  and  passed 
40  to  12,  p.  503.  See  also  ibid.,  470,  472,  501. 


INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT   SYSTEM  201 

ceeded  Duncan,  "  that  any  reasonable  sum  of  money  borrowed 
for  the  purpose  of  constructing  this  canal,  will  become  a  charge 
on  the  State  Treasury."  He  therefore  advised  a  loan  and  the 
sale  of  lots  at  Chicago  from  time  to  time  to  pay  the  interest.14 
He  still  insisted  on  a  steamboat  canal. 

The  canal  bill  was  drawn  up  by  its  supporters  in  Chicago 
and  altered  and  corrected  by  George  Forquer.  According  to 
whig  accounts  it  was  endangered  and  nearly  defeated  by  the 
partisan  efforts  of  the  democrats  to  provide  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  commissioners.  The  act  as  it  was  finally  passed, 
largely  through  the  influence  of  the  whigs,  provided  for  the 
negotiation  by  the  governor  of  a  loan  on  the  credit  of  the  state 
for  $500,000,  issuing  for  it  a  six  per  cent  stock  redeemable 
after  1860,  with  a  provision  that  it  should  not  be  sold  for  less 
than  par.  The  governor  and  senate  were  to  appoint  three 
commissioners,  removable  for  cause,  to  hold  office  until  Janu- 
ary, 1837,  after  which  they  were  to  be  appointed  biennally  as 
the  legislature  should  direct. 

The  canal  was  to  be  of  boat  size  and  supplied  with  water 
from  Lake  Michigan  and  such  other  sources  as  the  commis- 
sioners might  decide.  The  commissioners  were  instructed  to 
sell  lots  in  Chicago  and  Ottawa  on  annual  installments.  The 
canal  was  to  begin  at  or  near  Chicago  on  canal  lands  and  ter- 
minate near  the  mouth  of  the  little  Vermilion  on  land  owned 
by  the  state.  The  needed  legislation  had  been  obtained;  but, 
as  events  showed,  the  difficulties  had  only  begun.  The  fate  of 
the  various  projects  in  the  public  improvement  system  began  to 
be  vitally  connected  with  the  interests  of  the  various  aspirants 
in  the  impending  contest  over  the  location  of  the  state  capital ; 
and  in  the  trades  and  bargains,  by  which  local  projects  of  one 
kind  and  the  other  were  advanced,  local  and  sectional  interests 
were  predominant.  The  state  capital  was  originally  located 
in  the  wilderness  at  Vandalia  with  the  intent  that  the  state  and 
not  private  speculators  should  profit  from  the  exploitation  of 

14  Coles  to  Duncan,  April  28,  1835  in  House  Journal,  1835-1836,  2  session, 
14;  Delafield  to  Coles,  April  20,  1835  in  ibid.,  19  ff . ;  ibid.,  8. 


202  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

town  lots ;  but  population  had  not  followed  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment. The  town  lot  speculation  had  been  a  failure ;  the  town 
was  supposedly  unhealthy,  and  its  boarding  houses  were  reputed 
expensive  and  poor.  An  agitation  begun,  as  it  was  claimed, 
by  legislative  candidates  from  Sangamon  and  Morgan  counties 
in  1832  looked  toward  a  settlement  of  the  question  of  the  loca- 
tion of  the  capital,  after  the  allotted  twenty  years  at  Vandalia 
had  expired.  As  soon  as  this  subject  was  broached  in  the 
legislature,  complicated  sectional  alignments  appeared.  By 
clever  maneuvering  the  Madison  county  members,  it  was 
claimed,  defeated  a  proposal  for  a  location  by  a  board  of 
commissioners  and  substituted  one  providing  for  a  popular 
referendum  on  Jacksonville,  Springfield,  Alton,  Vandalia, 
Peoria,  and  a  town  to  be  located  at  the  geographical  center 
of  the  state.15 

As  it  was  passed,  the  act  was  by  no  means  to  the  taste  of 
the  people  of  Springfield.  The  amended  bill  had  been  carefully 
devised  to  break  up  the  phalanx  of  the  north.  It  was  evident 
that  with  Peoria,  Jacksonville,  and  the  geographical  center  all 
to  contend  with,  the  chances  of  either  Alton  or  Vandalia  were 
brighter  than  Springfield's.  The  Sangamo  Journal  bewailed 
the  fact  that  the  choice  must  be  a  minority  one.  It  protested 
that  no  one  could  determine  where  the  geographical  center 
was  or  what  was  its  fitness;  it  depicted  the  reputed  unhealthi- 
ness  and  the  liability  to  summer  malaria  of  Alton.16  The 
Alton  Spectator  advised  it  to  look  at  the  matter  philosophi- 
cally, remembering  that  if  any  town  had  been  left  out,  Spring- 
field might  well  have  been  it. 

In  December  the  idea  of  a  convention  to  overcome  the 
effect  of  the  act  by  uniting  the  northern  politicians  on  some 
one  location  was  discussed.  A  meeting  at  Springfield  on 
January  4,  1834,  called  such  a  convention  to  meet  at  Rushville 

15 Illinois  Advocate,  October  29,  1834;  Alton  American,  May  12,  1834; 
House  Journal,  1832-1833,  i  session,  271 ;  Senate  Journal,  1832-1833,  i  ses- 
sion, 290. 

10  Sangamo  Journal,  May  9,  June  i,  July  20,  27,  1833.  The  Journal  was 
especially  angry  with  the  grasping  spirit  of  Alton,  ibid.,  January  u,  1834. 


INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENT  SYSTEM  203 

the  first  Monday  in  April.  The  meeting  duly  convened  on 
April  7  with  delegates  present  from  Knox,  McDonough,  San- 
gamon,  Hancock,  Morgan,  Macon,  Tazewell,  Adams,  Warren, 
Putnam,  Schuyler,  Peoria,  and  Cook  counties.  An  attempt 
was  made  by  a  Schuyler  delegate  to  recommend  a  repeal  of 
the  law  and  the  selection  of  Springfield  by  popular  vote.  A 
postponement  was  moved  and  the  adoption  of  an  address 
protesting  against  the  multiplication  of  northern  aspirants  and 
recommending  Springfield  was  secured  by  an  overwhelming 
majority.  The  minority,  however,  from  Peoria,  Putnam, 
Tazewell,  Knox,  and  Cook  complained  that  the  convention  had 
organized  at  an  unduly  early  hour,  before  all  the  delegates 
had  arrived.  They  believed  that  designating  any  one  northern 
place  would  unite  the  whole  southern  part  of  the  state;  rather 
than  have  that  happen,  they  preferred  that  the  act  should  be 
repealed.17 

With  a  view  to  the  vote,  all  the  aspirants  put  forth  their 
arguments  for  themselves  and  against  their  neighbors.  A 
Vandalia  meeting,  July  3,  protested  against  the  unfairness  of 
deciding  the  question  six  years  before  the  expiration  of  the 
allotted  time,  as  Vandalia  was  just  beginning  to  develop  and 
urged  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  law.  The  board  of  trade 
of  Alton,  June  16,  issued  an  address  calling  attention  to  that 
city's  well-nigh  year-round  water  communication  which  made 
it  accessible  from  various  parts  of  the  state.  The  location 
of  the  capital  there  they  urged  would  insure  the  location  of 
the  Cumberland  road  as  the  state  wished  it.  It  would  enable 
Alton  to  rival  St.  Louis  in  earnest,  for  "  the  great  city  of  the 
Northwest  is  yet  to  be  reared  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi." 
Jacksonville  could  argue  a  large  population,  a  college,  and  a 
reputation  for  culture;  Springfield  could  claim  a  location  near 
the  center  of  the  state.  Peoria  urged  its  facilities  for  manu- 
facture, its  location  on  the  main  routes  of  travel  between 
Galena,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  the  south,  and  its  water  con- 

17  Sangamo  Journal,  January  n,  April  19,  November  15,  1834;  Chicago 
Democrat,  April  23,  1834;  Illinois  Advocate,  July  19,  1834;  Alton  Spectator, 
April  17,  24,  1834. 


204  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

nection.18  Against  Jacksonville  and  Springfield  was  alleged 
their  distance  from  navigable  rivers.  In  the  referendum  vote 
Alton  was  successful  but  by  a  narrow  margin  only. 

The  decisive  struggle  came  in  1837.  In  Sangamon  county 
the  legislative  elections  had  resulted  in  the  choice  of  nine 
staunch  whigs  —  the  famous  "Long  Nine."  They  stood  for 
the  unity  of  the  county  and  a  common  effort  to  promote  its 
interests.  In  revenge  for  this  complete  overthrow  the  demo- 
cratic -opponents,  John  Calhoun  and  his  friends,  attempted  to 
defeat  the  Springfield  project,  some  of  them  lobbying  for 
Peoria  and  some  for  Illiopolis,  a  town  set  near  the  center  of 
the  state  in  which  Duncan  was  said  to  be  interested.  In  May 
of  1837,  Simeon  Francis  of  the  Sangamo  Journal  sardonically 
noted  that  the  town  was  represented  only  by  a  wolf  trap,  a  fit 
symbol  of  those  trapped  there.19  The  measure  for  which  the 
Sangamon  county  members  determined  to  work  was  a  vote  by 
the  general  assembly — thus  they  could  ultimately  hope  to 
eliminate  rivals  that  divided  their  vote.  By  a  narrow  margin 
they  carried  their  new  act.  On  the  vote  that  followed,  Spring- 
field was  successful  on  the  fourth  ballot;  and  Vandalia  at  the 
next  session  sought  in  vain  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the  act.  On 
June  20,  1839,  Governor  Carlin  issued  his  proclamation  re- 
moving the  capital  to  Springfield  on  or  before  July  4. 

The  means  by  which  the  Sangamon  delegation  achieved 
their  triumph  were  probably  maneuvering  and  trading  of  the 
frankest  sort.  Orville  H.  Browning  in  his  somewhat  pompous 
way  at  a  dinner  in  Springfield  gave  all  praise  to  the  delegation, 
pronouncing  that  it  was  their  "judicious  management,  their 
ability,  their  gentlemanly  deportment,  their  unassuming  man- 
ners, their  constant  and  untiring  labor  for  your  interests," 20 
that  had  won  Springfield  her  triumph.  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
more  bluntly  denying  that  he  had  traded  his  vote  to  the  dele- 

18  Sangamo  Journal,  July  27,  1833,  June  21,  1834;  Alton  Spectator,  July  i, 
1834;  Chicago  Democrat,  April  i,  1834. 

19  Sangamo  Journal,  May   13,   July   i,    1837;   House  Journal,   1836-1837,    i 
session,  610,  613,  663,  702. 

20  Sangamo  Journal,  July  29,  1837. 


INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT   SYSTEM  205 

gation  for  a  land  office  —  and  indeed  he  voted  for  Jacksonville 
to  the  last — declared  the  delegation  had  traded  everything 
to  obtain  the  capital.  Peter  Green  of  Clay  county  denied  that 
the  trade  had  been  made  of  votes  for  the  capital  at  Springfield 
for  votes  for  a  system  of  internal  improvements  for  the  south. 
But  later  when  it  was  proposed  to  repeal  the  internal  improve- 
ment system,  Lincoln  indignantly  declared  that  a  bargain  had 
been  made  between  the  friends  of  the  system  and  the  friends 
of  Springfield  and  that  it  was  irrepealable.  A  casual  examina- 
tion of  the  legislative  journals  shows  the  Sangamon  men  always 
working  for  everyone's  interest,  voting  for  all  additions  to 
the  system  proposed,  and  splitting  on  motions  to  substitute 
one  thing  for  another.  Thus  the  sectional  contest  over  the 
capital  location  led  to  the  triumph  of  local  interests  in  public 
improvement  legislation.21 

Meanwhile  between  1829  and  1836  various  local  projects 
for  internal  improvements  had  been  broached,  discussed, 
expanded,  all  of  them  being  based  on  more  and  more  extrava- 
gant calculations  of  profits.  The  time  was  ripe  for  their 
friends  to  unite,  and  by  bargains  of  one  sort  or  another  to  com- 
mit the  state  to  putting  under  construction  a  wild  and  fantastic 
system  of  internal  improvements.  At  first  such  proposals  had 
attracted  but  passing  notice.  Thus  in  1829  the  Galena  Adver- 
tiser clipped  an  account  of  a  projected  railroad  from  Pittsburg 
to  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation  on  the  Illinois  and  thence 
to  the  Mississippi.  In  1831  one  or  two  meetings  were  held  to 
urge  a  railroad  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Mississippi.  On  Decem- 
ber 28,  1832,  a  Jacksonville  meeting,  while  indorsing  the  broad 
project,  added  a  suggestion  for  a  railroad  from  Jacksonville 
to  the  Illinois  river.  Abraham  Lincoln  in  offering  himself  for 
the  general  assembly  in  1832  suggested  such  a  railroad  with 
an  extension  to  Springfield  but  concluded  that  the  estimated 
cost,  $290,000,  was  prohibitory.  He  judged  it  better  to 
improve  the  navigation  of  the  Sangamon,  making  it  available 
for  boats  of  twenty-five  to  thirty  tons,  and  reenforced  his 

21  Illinois  State  Register,  July  20,   1838;  Sangamo  Journal,  April  22,  1837. 


2o6  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

statement  with  arguments  based  on  his  flatboat  trip  down  the 
river.22 

In  1834  the  project  took  a  form  which  provoked  the  hos- 
tility of  the  friends  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal.  As 
then  framed  the  transverse  project  involved  a  canal  from  the 
Wabash  to  the  Mississippi  to  connect  to  the  eastward  with 
the  projected  series  of  canals  to  Lake  Erie  and  Buffalo.  In 
support  of  such  a  project  it  was  argued  that  Lake  Erie  would 
be  open  much  earlier. in  the  spring  than  Huron  and  Michigan 
and  that  a  circuit  would  be  thereby  avoided.23  Forquer  in 
1834  did  not  by  any  means  reject  the  plan  of  an  Illinois  and 
Michigan  canal.  Instead  of  the  transverse  canal,  he  sug- 
gested a  railroad  via  Danville,  Decatur,  Springfield,  Beards- 
town,  Rushville,  and  Quincy.24  The  Alton  Spectator  sarcas- 
tically pronounced  that  Forquer's  scheme  had  special  reference 
to  Springfield's  ambitions  for  success  in  the  capital  election. 
The  Sangamo  Journal  in  turn  pronounced  that  the  thing  that 
would  really  insure  the  position  of  Alton  would  be  a  railroad 
which  would  make  it  the  depot  and  market  of  the  Sangamon 
country.25 

This  last  project  gained  favor  in  Springfield  during  1835. 
In  a  meeting  on  May  25,  Forquer  elaborated  the  possible 
advantages  to  be  gained  from  a  vigorous  enlistment  of  local 
support  for  the  enterprise.  He  regarded  such  a  railroad  as 
only  a  step  in  the  completion  of  a  line  to  the  Wabash  and  Erie 
canal,  which  should  be  accompanied  by  one  to  the  Illinois  and 
Mississippi  rivers.  He  computed  the  total  cost  at  $1,248,000 

22  Galena  Advertiser,  September   14,   1829;   Sangamo  Journal,  January   5, 
March  15,  1832. 

23  Sangamo   Journal,  April   19,   1834.     It  stated  the   Alton  Spectator  and 
Beardstown   Chronicle  were  favorable   to   the   project.     See   Alton   Spectator, 
April  24,  1834. 

24  Sangamo  Journal,  June  28,  1834.     James  Adams  in  his  canvass  for  gov- 
ernor advocated  a  canal  or  railroad  from  the  Wabash  to  the  Mississippi.    Ibid., 
July    12,    1834.     Representatives   from   Adams    and    Schuyler    counties    met   on 
December  7,  1835,  and  urged  a  railroad  from  the  Erie  and  Wabash  canal  to 
Quincy  via  Springfield  and  Jacksonville  and  also  suggested  a  railroad  to  the 
Ohio  via  Vandalia.    Ibid.,  December  19,  1835.    There  was  a  meeting  at  Macki- 
naw to  urge  a  railroad  from  the  Wabash  to  the  Illinois.    Ibid.    Ewing  proposed 
this  in  his  message  of  1834.    House  Journal,  1834-1835,  i  session,  16. 

25  Sangamo  Journal,  April  25,  1835;  Alton  Spectator,  August  26,  1834. 


INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT   SYSTEM  207 

and  estimated  the  tonnage  as  45,000  annually,  yielding  $675,- 
ooo  in  freights.  The  return  from  the  bonanza  he  calculated 
at  eighteen  per  cent,  and  he  believed  the  farmers  perfectly 
warranted  in  pledging  their  farms  for  stock.  Once  these  roads 
and  the  Charleston-Memphis  line,  together  with  the  Wabash- 
Erie  and  Illinois-Michigan  canals  were  completed,  Springfield 
would  sit  enthroned  with  markets  on  three  distant  seaboards 
as  her  vassals.  A  railroad  convention  of  delegates  from  San- 
gamon,  Macon,  Madison,  and  Macoupin  was  held  a  few  weeks 
later  to  push  the  Springfield-Alton  railroad  scheme.26  The 
cost  of  the  Springfield  and  Alton  railroad  was  estimated  at 
$500,000.  But  it  was  also  estimated  that  the  country  would 
provide  for  it  37,346  tons  of  freight  a  year — assuming  that 
each  of  3,000  farms  exported  annually  100  bushels  of  wheat, 
200  of  corn,  and  100  of  oats,  12  hogs,  and  5  cattle.  Imports 
would  be  1 2,500  tons  annually.  The  gross  receipts  from  Sanga- 
mon  county  alone  would  yield  $172,050  revenue  annually,  not 
counting  that  of  the  three  other  favored  counties.  The  mania 
for  calculations  of  imperial  commercial  enterprises  was  in 
men's  blood  and  had  to  run  its  course. 

One  section  of  the  state  began  to  vie  with  another  in  pur- 
suing bubbles.  In  the  fall  of  1835  the  project  of  the  central 
railroad  began  to  take  form.  On  October  28  the  Chicago 
Democrat  printed  a  letter  from  Sidney  Breese  suggesting  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  from  the  junction  of  the  canal  with 
the  Illinois  river  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  Meetings  in 
support  of  such  a  project  were  held  in  Shelby  county,  October 
19  and  20,  and  November  18;  at  Vandalia,  October  26;  and 
at  Decatur,  November  n.  A  meeting  in  Jackson  county, 
December  2,  deplored  the  comparative  apathy  of  southern 
Illinois  in  pushing  her  interests  and  warned  her  that  by  stand- 
ing still  she  was  losing  position.  It  demanded  support  from 
southern  members  to  the  central  railroad  project.27  An  act 
for  a  two  and  a  half  million  dollar  corporation  with  a  long 

28  Chicago   Democrat,   June   10,   1835;   Sangamo   Journal,   April    25,   May 
22,  1835. 

27  Illinois  Advocate,  October  21,  28,  December  17,  1835. 


208  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

and  impressive  list  of  incorporators  passed  the  assembly 
in  1836. 

Several  schemes,  as  might  be  imagined,  centered  on  Chi- 
cago. One  that  attracted  some  interest  in  1835  was  for  a 
railroad  from  Chicago  to  Vincennes.  A  federal  land  grant 
was  asked  for  it,  and  the  company  was  incorporated  with  three 
millions  of  capital  to  construct  a  railroad  via  Danville,  Paris, 
and  Palestine,  to  be  begun  in  three  years  and  completed  in 
eight.  There  was  provision  for  territorial  location  of  direc- 
tors and  the  road  might  be  operated  by  steam  or  animal  power. 
Next  summer  stock  subscription  books  were  opened.28  In 
1837  T.  W.  Smith  and  others  petitioned  congress  for  a  right 
of  way  and  a  right  to  preempt  in  a  ten-year  credit  a  section 
on  each  side  of  the  road.  In  return,  they  made  the  offer  to 
carry  the  mails  daily.  At  the  time  it  was  said  that  a  million 
dollars  of  stock  had  been  subscribed. 

Inevitably  various  localities  of  the  state  came  each  to  the 
conviction  of  the  advisability  of  pooling  local  interests  in  inter- 
nal improvements  in  a  common  stock.  As  early  as  1830,  Coles 
had  prepared  for  the  historical  society  of  the  state  an  excellent 
account  of  the  state's  physiography  with  reference  to  naviga- 
tion and  internal  improvements;  but  such  considerations  were 
not  to  have  the  decisive  voice  in  the  laying  out  of  public  works. 
On  November  2,  1833,  the  Sangamo  Journal  noticed  the  state- 
ment of  a  London  paper  that  fifty  million  dollars  of  English 
capital  could  be  lent  to  states  desiring  internal  improvements 
or  state  banks.  In  1834  several  candidates  garnished  their 
announcements  with  statements  for  or  against  internal  improve- 
ment systems.29  Duncan  in  his  inaugural  message  proposed 
the  future  improvement  of  the  Illinois  and  Wabash  channels 
on  some  such  fashion,  but  like  a  good  whig  he  looked  for  a 
possible  change  of  heart  on  Jackson's  part  which  would  bring 

28  House  Journal,  1834-1835,  I  session,  141;  Laws  of  1835,  p.  88;  Chicago 
American,  September  26,  1835. 

29  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  16,  1830;    Illinois  Advocate,  June  26,  July 
5,  1834.     Easton  Whitten  and  Benjamin  Roberts  offer  for  the  senate  in  Bond 
county  against  internal  improvements  in  state  money.     James  Evans  offers  for 
the  governor.    Sangamo  Journal,  July  5,  1834  declares  for  the  system. 


INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT   SYSTEM  209 

federal  aid.  The  Chicago  Democrat,  clipping  the  Peoria 
Champion,  on  December  3,  1834,  proposed  as  business  for 
the  legislature  the  following  railroads,  Chicago  to  the  Wabash, 
Chicago  to  Galena,  and  Terre  Haute  to  Quincy.  In  that 
session,  however,  internal  improvements  were  regarded  as 
possible  rivals  to  the  canal  and  as  such  for  the  moment  to  be 
discouraged.30 

In  1835  the  movement  gained  fresh  impetus.  Forquer's 
speech,  already  cited,  bears  its  testimony  to  the  fact.  On  Octo- 
ber 1 6,  Sidney  Breese31  pointed  out  a  possible  combination 
of  internal  improvement  schemes  which  he  thought  might 
supply  transportation  both  to  the  south  and  west.  The  scheme 
included  a  railroad  on  the  route  of  the  Illinois  Central,  for 
which  the  credit  of  the  state  might  be  pledged.  From  it, 
branches  might  radiate  to  the  Wabash  and  the  upper  Mis- 
sissippi. This  prospect  of  juncture  of  the  canal  and  the  central 
railroad  was  considered  by  some  as  stretching  the  credit  of  the 
state  too  far.  A  member  professed  that  in  the  next  session 
he  voted  against  the  canal,  not  because  he  thought  there  was 
any  danger  in  pledging  the  bulk  of  the  stock  for  the  canal,  but 
because  of  a  scheme  to  couple  canal  and  railroad  and  borrow 
four  millions  for  them.32  Such  a  combination  was  proposed 
by  a  meeting  at  Ottawa,  November  18. 

Breese's  plan  was  indorsed  by  a  letter  in  the  Sangamo 
Journal  of  November  28,  1835,  which  proposed  also  a  rail- 
road from  Alton  to  Shawneetown  to  intersect  the  railroad 
from  Louisville  to  New  Orleans  as  well  as  a  railroad  from 
the  Wabash  and  Erie  canal  to  Quincy  and  from  Springfield  to 

30  Henry  reported  in  the  house,  January  10,  1835,  that  it  was  necessary  to 
put  the  whole  energy  of  the  state  in  the  canal,  and  accordingly  he  moved  the 
rejection    of   the   petition    for   the   improvement  of    the    Illinois    river.      House 
Journal,  1834-1835,  i  session,  264.     William  J.  Gatewood  argued  similarly  on 
the  incorporation  of  a   railroad  from  Logansport  to  Quincy.     Forquer  argued 
on  the  other  side  that  after  all  the  south  had  gained  from  salines,  the  north 
might  be  entitled  at  least  to  an  incorporation.     The  difficulty  was  caused  by  a 
squabble  as  to  the  terminus  at  Alton  or  Quincy.     Sangamo  Journal,  January 
17,   1835. 

31  Sangamon  Journal,  October  31,  1835. 

82  Illinois  Advocate,  December  2,  1835,  January  16,  1836. 


210  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Alton.  By  way  of  financing  these  projects  the  author  suggested 
a  combination  of  land  and  stock  aid  and  a  private  company. 
The  editor  of  the  paper  commented  that  the  novelty  lay  in  the 
setting  forth  of  a  system  for  the  whole  state. 

In  the  Illinois  senate  in  the  session  of  1835—1836,  Edwards 
offered  a  set  of  internal  improvement  resolutions  in  which  he 
proposed  that,  to  limit  the  impending  multiplication  of  ineli- 
gible routes,  the  committee  on  internal  improvements  should 
report  bills  incorporating  companies  for  railroads  from  the 
state  line  toward  the  Wabash  and  Erie  canal  through  Danville, 
Decatur,  and  Springfield  to  Quincy;  from  the  termination  of 
the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  through  Bloomington  to  Deca- 
tur; and  from  Alton  through  Edwardsville  and  Equality  to 
Shawneetown.  He  proposed  state  loans  to  these  enterprises 
and  a  state  subscription  of  one-third  the  capital  stock  in  case 
the  stockholders  of  a  company  had  subscribed  two-thirds.  The 
right  to  buy  out  the  company  on  terms  was  reserved  to  the 
state.  A  week  later,  he  amended  the  resolution  by  providing 
that  the  line  to  Bloomington  and  Decatur  serve  to  connect 
the  canal  with  the  Wabash  and  Mississippi  and  the  Alton  and 
Springfield  railroads.  His  intention  was  to  extend  the  road 
at  a  future  time  from  Decatur  via  Springfield  to  Vandalia 
where  it  would  connect  with  the  Kaskaskia  river  which  was 
to  be  made  navigable,  if  it  was  possible  to  do  so,  by  the  use 
of  future  appropriations.33  Edwards  saw  far  enough  into 
the  defects,  such  as  they  were,  of  the  haphazard  system  of 
granting  charters  that  obtained  in  the  1836  session;  but  his 
positive  argument  for  the  concerted  system  which  he  outlined 
was  singularly  wanting  in  insight.  The  plan  he  proposed  was 
merely  building  the  railroads  to  connect  the  navigable  rivers 
and  to  furnish  communication  between  the  small  cities  of 
that  day. 

Taken  collectively  the  charters  of  1836,  which  were  passed 
at  haphazard  and  usually  with  no  opposition,  are  rather  inter- 
esting. First  it  may  be  said  that  they  varied  widely  in  their 

33  Senate  Journal,  1835-1836,  2  session,  154,  198. 


INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT   SYSTEM  211 

provisions,  probably  in  accord  with  the  preconceptions  of  the 
lawyers  who  drew  them  up.  Some  of  them  contained  provi- 
sions by  which  the  state  might  take  the  properties  over  after 
a  term  of  years,  either  at  an  appraised  value,  or  at  the  original 
cost  plus  a  fixed  yearly  interest,  or  for  cost  plus  cumulative 
interest.  Several  contained  provisions  allowing  the  legislature 
to  regulate  rates,  if  after  a,  term  of  years  the  profits  of  the 
company  exceeded  a  certain  percentage.  There  were  charters, 
however,  which  lacked  one  or  many  of  these  provisions.  Most 
of  them  contained  a  forfeiture  clause  in  the  event  the  road  was 
not  duly  begun,  and  some  specified  elaborately  the  rate  at 
which  construction  must  progress.  Sometimes  the  charters 
were  for  limited  periods;  in  other  cases  the  only  limitation  was 
a  power  of  legislative  purchase  in  a  term  of  years;  sometimes 
there  was  not  even  that.84  The  Illinois  Central  was  granted 
a  monopoly  limited  by  regulation  of  tolls  and  a  right  of  pur- 
chase after  twenty-five  years.35  On  stock  issues,  the  limita- 
tions devised  often  seemed  rather  intended  to  secure  a  wide 
distribution  of  stock  than  any  other  purpose.  Sometimes  the 
capital  was  specified  in  the  charter,  sometimes  a  specified 
increase  was  allowed,  and  sometimes  a  limit  was  placed  upon 
the  income.  The  sole  limitation  on  the  Mississippi,  Spring- 
field, and  Carrollton  railroad  was  that  ten  per  cent  of  the 
stock  be  paid  in.  The  Warsaw,  Peoria,  and  Wabash  was 
under  practically  no  limitation  whatever.36  Some  charters 
included  provisions  for  reports  to  the  -legislature  and  others 
did  not.  Had  the  hopes  of  1836  ever  reached  fruition,  Illinois 
would  have  been  covered  with  a  railway  system  almost  defying 
regulation. 

The  details  of  the  various  evanescent  charters  of  the  1836 
session  are  of  comparatively  little  interest.  They  suggest  in 

34  Charters  of  Mt.  Carmel  and  Alton;  Pekin,  Bloomington,  and  Wabash; 
Belleville;  Alton,  Wabash  and  Erie;  Rushville;  Wabash  and  Mississippi; 
Central  Branch  Wabash;  Wabash  and  Mississippi  Union;  Pekin  and  Tremont; 
and  Mississippi,  Springfield,  and  Carrollton  railroads  in  Laws  of  1836,  p.  8,  12, 
16,  18,  20,  21,  23,  36,  54,  63,  65,  89,  90. 

33  Ibid.,  p.  129. 

36  Ibid.,  p.  12,  76. 


212  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

no  great  degree  the  railroads  of  the  present  This  is  true  in 
the  main  probably  because  they  were  centered  commonly  at 
Alton  rather  than  at  St.  Louis.  Of  the  projected  lines,  the 
Galena  and  Chicago  Union,  the  Illinois  Central  line  from 
LaSalle  to  Cairo,  and  one  from  Danville  to  Meredosia  sug- 
gesting the  line  of  the  Wabash  are  the  only  extensive  lines 
which  still  persist. 

The  fateful  legislative  session  of  1836—1837  was  the  logi- 
cal result  of  the  charters  of  1836.  With  so  many  enterprises  in 
the  field,  the  feeble  resources  that  would  scarcely  have  suf- 
ficed a  single  enterprise  were  diffused  among  many.  It  is 
difficult  in  the  case  of  most  of  the  enterprises  projected  during 
1836  to  trace  any  successful  prosecution  of  the  task  of  organ- 
izing them.  In  the  fall,  Gallatin,  Wayne,  Sangamon,  and 
probably  other  counties  appointed  delegates  to  a  convention 
at  Vandalia  to  decide  what  parts  of  the  various  lines  had  better 
be  supported.37 

In  the  Illinois  legislative  session  of  1836-1837  the  internal 
improvement  system  began  with  Douglas'  resolutions.  They 
specified  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal,  a  railroad  from  the 
terminus  of  the  canal  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  a  railroad 
from  Quincy  to  the  Wabash  and  Erie  canal,  the  improvement 
of  the  Illinois  and  Wabash  rivers,  and  surveys  of  other  works. 
These  were  to  be  constructed  at  the  state's  expense  on  a  loan 
of  [blank  in  resolution]  on  the  state's  credit,  and  the  debt 
was  to  be  floated  by  sales  from  the  lands  of  the  Illinois  and 
Michigan  canal,  that  enterprise  being  compelled  to  forego  its 
I ' r_  privileged  position  and  take  its  chance  with  the  other  works. 
Three  days  later  in  the  senate,  Edwards  proposed  a  joint 
inquiry  by  the  internal  improvement  committee  of  the  two 
houses  as  to  the  expediency  of  devising  a  system  for  the  whole 
state,  the  interest  on  the  loan  to  be  paid  from  a  part  of  the 
distribution  fund.  He  left  open  the  question  of  construction 
by  chartered  companies.  Full  reports  were  made,  and  in  con- 

37  Sangamo  Journal,  February  13,  August  27,  November  26,   1836;  Illinois 
State  Register,  December  8,   1836. 


INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT   SYSTEM  213 

sequence  both  houses  passed  resolutions  begging  shamelessly 
for  federal  land  grants.38  The  house  internal  improvement 
committee  reported  on  January  9.  It  began  with  the  usual 
appeal  to  the  brilliant  prospects  of  New  York  and  the  even 
greater  opportunity  before  Illinois.  It  fortified  itself  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  internal  improvement  convention  the  people 
had  been  represented  and  had  spoken  their  mind.  It  offered 
a  plan  more  conservative  than  the  conventions  —  certainly  in 
view  of  the  huge  sale  of  lands  in  the  previous  year  and  the 
oncoming  flood  of  immigration  none  too  radical.  It  cheerfully 
dispensed  with  inquiry  into  costs  with  the  fact  that  the  cost 
of  constructing  railways  in  Illinois  was  capable  of  exact  esti- 
mate and  that  if  the  routes  were  surveyed  first,  the  state  could 
not  hope  to  buy  adjacent  lands  at  the  federal  price. 

Descending  to  particulars,  it  recommended  a  loan  of  eight 
millions  in  the  hands  of  a  board  of  fund  commissioners.  To 
meet  this  debt  the  state  might  count  on  twelve  million  acres 
of  taxable  land  by  1842.  The  railroads  were  to  be  begun  at 
intersections  with  navigable  streams  and  important  towns  and 
to  be  extended  in  both  directions  from  them.  It  estimated 
the  cost  of  railroads  at  $8,000  a  mile  or  less  and  it  recom- 
mended the  expenditure  of  $100,000  each  on  the  Great 
Wabash,  and  the  Illinois  and  Rock,  $50,000  on  the  Kaskaskia 
and  Little  Wabash,  $100,000  on  the  Great  Western  Mail 
route,  $3,500,000  on  the  Illinois  Central,  $1,600,000  on  the 
Southern  Cross  railroad,  and  $1,850,000  on  the  Northern 
Cross.39  As  finally  passed  the  act  added  $150,000  to  the 
appropriation  for  the  Western  Mail  route,  and  added  to  the 
act  provisions  for  a  railroad,  Bloomington  to  Mackinaw 
involving  an  expenditure  of  $350,000;  one  from  Belleville  to 
intersect  the  Alton  and  Mt.  Carmel  at  $150,000;  one  from 
Lower  Alton  via  Hillsboro  to  the  Illinois  Central  railroad  at 
$600,000;  one  from  Peoria  to  Warsaw  to  cost  $700,000;  and 
a  branch  of  the  Illinois  Central  railroad  from  the  point  where 

38  Senate  Journal,  1836-1837,  i  session,  87,  89,  127;   House  Journal,  1836- 
1837,  i  session,  36. 

39  Ibid.,  1836-1837,  i  session,  202. 


2i4  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

a  line  from  Hillsboro  to  Shelbyville  would  intersect  it  to  the 
Indiana  state  line.  In  addition,  $200,000  was  divided  between 
the  unfortunate  counties  which  obtained  no  other  appro- 
priations. 

The  procedure  by  which  these  amendments  were  added  is 
difficult  to  trace.  The  bill  was  reported  to  the  house  along 
with  the  report;  it  was  reported  back  on  January  23.  Several 
attempted  amendments  were  defeated,  the  Sangamon  members 
usually  voting  for  additions.  An  attempt  to  condemn  the  whole 
system  by  resolution  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  9  to  70,  most  of  the 
opposition  being  from  Greene,  the  lower  Military  Tract,  and 
Egypt.  A  second  attempt  to  obtain  a  referendum  on  it  at  the 
next  election  was  lost  20  to  59,  the  opposition  again  coming 
from  the  Military  Tract  and  from  Egypt.  The  amendments 
usually  were  supported  by  the  members  interested  in  the  addi- 
tion, the  members  from  Sangamon  and  Morgan  and  the 
irreconcilables  who  wished  to  kill  the  bill.  The  bill  passed 
January  31,  by  a  vote  of  61  to  25.40 

February  16  the  senate  committee  reported  the  bill  with 
amendments.  In  the  senate  two  additions  were  voted  down. 
The  Bloomington  and  Mackinaw  railroad  was  added.  William 
O'Rear's  proposal  for  a  popular  vote  was  lost  20  to  20.  The 
amendment  for  $200,000  to  the  counties  not  otherwise  favored 
was  added  here  also  and  adopted  31  to  9.  The  third  reading 
was  carried,  25  to  15  and  the  passage  by  a  similar  vote.41 
The  representatives  of  White  county  in  the  house  February  23 
spread  on  the  journal  of  the  house  a  protest  against  the  meas- 
ure as  designed  to  do  nothing  but  raise  the  value  of  town  lots 
in  certain  favored  spots ;  and  as  saddling  the  state  with  a  debt 
the  interest  on  which  was  ten  times  the  ordinary  revenue.  It 
pointed  out  that  the  locations  of  the  railroad  lines  were  made 
not  by  any  settled  plan  but  rather  as  a  result  of  logrolling.  The 
protesters  pointed  out  especially  the  disaster  that  might  result 
from  the  method  of  financing  by  bank  capital.42 

40  House  Journal,  1836-1837,  i  session,  363,  366,  443. 

41  Senate  Journal,  1836-1837,  i  session,  445,  452,  466,  474,  475,  487. 

42  House  Journal,  1836-1837,  i  session,  680. 


INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENT  SYSTEM  215 

Two  days  later  the  council  of  revision  returned  the  bill 
with  objections.  Judges  Browne  and  Lockwood  objected  to 
certain  mere  technical  provisions  which  could  be  easily  altered. 
Smith  in  concurring  especially  declined  any  expression  of 
opinion  on  the  question  of  expediency  which  he  left  to  the 
general  assembly.  Duncan  took  issue  on  the  ground  that  such 
roads  could  be  made  in  a  free  government  only  by  citizens  or 
corporations.  He  pointed  out  the  danger  of  interference  in 
elections  of  those  in  power  over  the  system.  The  objections 
of  Browne  and  Lockwood  were  at  once  obviated  and  the  bill 
passed  53  to  20.  On  February  27  the  senate  adopted  the 
house  amendment  and  passed  the  bill  23  to  I3.43  The  state 
had  embarked  on  its  mad  speculation  in  haste;  it  was  to  have 
full  seven  years  in  which  to  repent  at  its  leisure. 

48  Senate  Journal,  1836-1837,  i  session,  529,  531. 


XL     THE  WRECK  OF  THE  INTERNAL  IMPROVE- 
MENT SYSTEM,  1837-1842 

AS  SOON  as  the  internal  improvement  system  had  been 
adopted  by  the  legislature,  the  board  prepared  to  begin 
construction  with  all  possible  speed.  It  divided  the  state  into 
three  districts  each  with  a  principal  engineer.  As  the  law  pre- 
scribed the  policy  of  working  on  the  enterprises  simultaneously 
in  proportionate  amounts,  construction  was  allotted  among 
them.  Accordingly  105  miles  were  put  under  contract  on  the 
Northern  Cross,  69^  miles  on  the  Illinois  Central,  24  on  the 
Peoria  and  Warsaw,  15  on  the  Alton  and  Shawneetown,  38 
on  the  Alton  and  Mt.  Carmel,  33  on  the  Alton  and  Shelbyville, 
and  9^4  on  the  Bloomington  and  Pekin.  The  board  estimated 
the  mileage  of  the  roads  at  1,341  24  and  their  total  cost  at 
$11,470,444.50.  It  pointed  out  that  this  sum  exceeded  the 
original  figure  set  because  the  roads  were  found  to  be  longer 
than  they  had  been  estimated.  By  December  of  1838  the 
commissioners  of  public  works  had  drawn  on  the  fund  com- 
missioners for  $1,142,027.00. 

There  was  needed  no  acute  observer  to  predict  from  the 
manner  of  its  inception  the  ill  success  of  the  internal  improve- 
ment system.  Not  only  were  some  of  the  commissioners  guilty 
at  least  of  neglect  and  mismanagement,  if  not  of  positive  mal- 
versation, but  the  enterprises  were  from  the  first  befogged 
in  the  atmosphere  of  logrolling  and  bargain,  under  which  the 
system  had  been  initiated  by  the  legislature.  This  condition 
necessitated  an  equal  attention  to  all  the  localities  benefiting  by 
the  improvements  and  contributing  their  share  to  the  bargain 
by  which  it  was  pushed  into  operation.  Accordingly  the  pro- 
vision requiring  simultaneous  construction  on  all  the  roads 
prevented  the  concentrating  of  effort  to  complete  any  one  and 

216 


WRECK   OF   THE   SYSTEM  217 

install  it  as  a  revenue  producer.  Out  of  a  piece  of  newspaper 
pseudoscience  Governor  Kinney  evolved  a  phrase  to  describe 
the  situation.  Writing  to  the  citizens  of  Peoria  who  had  asked 
that  part  of  the  projected  railroad  in  their  vicinity  should 
be  put  under  contract,  he  expressed  the  following  opinion: 
"Respecting  the  25th  section  of  the  Internal  Improvement 
Law,  to  which  you  refer  me,  it  is  idle  to  say  that  there  is  any 
thing  therein  contained  as  a  positive  injunction  upon  the  Com- 
missioners' that  they  should  commence  on  each  side  of  every 
navigable  stream,  and  progress  each  way  at  the  same  time, 
and  also  at  each  principal  town.  You  know  that  every  town, 
in  the  eyes  of  them  that  inhabit  it,  is  a  principal  one.  Such  a 
course  of  proceeding  would  cut  upon  the  whole  system  of  rail 
roads  into  so  many  parts,  disjointed  and  disconnected  one 
from  the  other  for  the  time  being,  that  it  would  appear  in  the 
attitude  of  a  'jointed  snake,'  which  had  been  whipped  into  so 
many  pieces  that  some  of  them  would  be  decayed  and  rendered 
useless  before  they  could  crawl  to  each  other's  relief,  and 
therefore  bring  the  whole  into  disrepute  at  once."  The  jointed 
snake  was  a  good  analogy  for  the  internal  improvement 
system.1 

The  mania  for  internal  improvement  was  not  satisfied  even 
by  the  system  itself.  Private  enterprises  flourished  side  by 
side  with  it.  Thus  at  the  time  when  the  system  was  beginning 
its  journey  through  the  general  assembly,  there  appeared  in 
the  Sangamo  Journal  the  prospectus  of  the  Beardstown  and 
Sangamon  canal.  The  thirty  mile  cut  from  Beardstown  to 
Huron  would  at  a  cost  of  six  thousand  dollars  a  mile  take  the 
place  of  a  river  route  of  one  hundred  miles.  A  possible  con- 
nection with  the  Wabash  canal  was  set  forth  and  the  prospects 
of  the  vast  quantities  of  produce  from  the  Sangamon  country 
and  of  deflected  trade  from  the  Ohio  were  held  out  to 
investors.  The  state  was  to  be  asked  to  subscribe  one-third 
of  the  capital.  Among  the  other  projects  was  one  for  a 
railroad  from  Rock  Island  to  Bloomington  by  way  of  Henne- 

1  Sangamo  Journal,  March  17,  1838. 


ai8  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

pin.     Inside  and  outside   the  system  men  were  living  in   a 
gilded  age.2 

In  a  very  especial  sense,  as  has  been  seen,  the  internal 
improvement  system  was  the  offspring  of  southern  Illinois, 
which  hoped  to  regain  the  ground  that  it  had  lost  to  the  north- 
ern portion  of  the  state  during  the  preceding  fifteen  years. 
The  men  of  Egypt  hoped  that  the  numerous  railroads  pro- 
jected might  turn  back  the  tide  of  emigration  which  had  flowed 
either  along  the  Great  Lakes  or  through  southern  Indiana  to 
the  head  waters  of  the  Illinois  river.  The  traveler  in  1839 
commented  on  the  backwardness  of  the  region  between  Mt. 
Vernon  and  Equality,  where  the  old  settlers  were  still  living  in 
their  rude  cabins  with  very  few  improvements;  but  he  added 
that  the  internal  improvement  system  had  drawn  new  attention 
to  the  south.  Middle  Illinois  in  view  of  the  interest  of  the 
south  in  the  internal  improvement  system  was  inclined  to  be 
somewhat  sarcastic  about  it.  In  the  assembly  of  1837  there 
was  an  amusing  passage  at  arms  between  Peter  Green  of  Clay 
county  and  William  Lane  of  Greene.  Mr.  Green  advocated 
a  bill  authorizing  a  state  bounty  on  wolf  scalps,  only  to  be 
told  by  Mr.  Lane  that  his  earnestness  was  due  to  the  large 
proportion  of  wolves  to  human  beings  in  his  county,  especially 
in  comparison  with  Greene.  Lane  assured  him,  however,  that 
when  the  various  railroads  projected  in  Clay  had  been  con- 
structed the  ringing  of  the  engine  bells  would  scare  all  the 
wolves  into  Greene  county,  where,  no  railroads  having  been 
projected,  they  might  live  in  peace.3 

The  faith  of  southern  Illinois  was  pinned  especially  to  the 
Illinois  Central  railroad.  Not  only  was  it  the  center  of  the 
system,  having  as  tributaries  the  various  crossroads  and 
branches,  but  it  served  to  connect  the  outlet  of  the  Illinois  and 
Michigan  canal  with  year-round  river  transportation  on  the 
Mississippi.  What  the  central  railroad  was  to  the  system 
in  the  mind  of  the  south,  Cairo  was  to  the  central  railroad. 

2  Illinois  State  Register,  September  15,  1837;  Sangamo  Journal,  January  6, 
1837,  January  28,  1838;  Alton  Telegraph,  May  9,  December  8,  1838. 

3  Sangamo  Journal,  February  25,  1837. 


WRECK   OF   THE   SYSTEM  219 

Men  foresaw  the  development  of  Cairo  into  a  commercial 
metropolis  central  to  all  the  union;  for  was  it  not  possible  that 
the  great  Charleston  railroad  might  terminate,  if  not  at  Shaw- 
neetown,  at  least  at  Cairo,  thus  uniting  the  junction  of  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  with  the  southern  Atlantic  seaboard?  John 
Logan  of  Jackson  county,  in  the  Illinois  legislature,  painted  an 
inspiring  word  picture  of  ocean  going  ships  laden  with  the 
produce  of  the  West  Indies  discharging  their  cargoes  at  the 
wharves  of  Cairo.  Meanwhile,  with  just  scorn  he  repelled 
the  possibility  that  the  rival  village  of  Caledonia,  a  little  further 
up  the  Ohio  might  hope  to  rival  Cairo  as  the  Venice  of  the 
New  World.4 

But  while  southern  Illinois  and  other  parts  of  the  state 
especially  interested  were  enthusiastic  over  the  system,  the 
program  of  improvements  had  met  consistent  opposition  from 
the  first.  It  had  been  a  political  issue  in  the  campaign  of  1 838, 
the  democrats  claiming  that  the  whig  nominees,  Edwards  espe- 
cially, were  then,  or  had  been,  hostile  to  the  system.  The  whigs 
it  is  true  endeavored  to  disprove  the  assertion  that  Edwards 
had  opposed  improvements,  but  admitted  that  he  preferred 
that  they  should  be  constructed  by  private  enterprise  rather 
than  by  the  state.  Thomas  Carlin,  the  democratic  nominee, 
declared  in  favor  of  the  system,  though  he  later  believed  its 
scope  was  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  resources  available  for 
its  construction.5 

Joseph  Duncan,  of  course,  was  the  most  inveterate  oppo- 
nent of  the  whole  program ;  and  the  tendency  of  the  whigs,  as  a 
party,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  their  political  oppon- 
ents upheld  the  system,  was  toward  opposition.  The  Fandalia 
Free  Press,  for  instance,  declared  that,  while  it  was  not  opposed 
to  a  judicious  employment  of  internal  improvements,  it  con- 
sidered that  the  system  as  it  had  developed  had  been  rashly 
and  unwisely  adopted  and  that  with  the  cessation  of  federal 

4  Illinois  Slate  Register,  December  22,  1837,  December  13,  1838,  March  8, 
15,  1839. 

'"Ibid.,  February  9,  March  9,  July  13,  1838;  Alton  Telegraph,  March  7, 
1838. 


220  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

deposits  with  the  state,  it  was  a  difficult  problem  to  obtain 
the  money  with  which  to  carry  it  out.  The  Sangamo  Journal 
pointed  out  the  hindrance  that  a  currency  of  gold  and  silver, 
limited  in  amount,  would  impose  upon  the  financing  of  such  a 
scheme.  In  the  summer  the  Peoria  Register  began  the  publi- 
cation of  a  series  of  bitter  attacks  written  by  a  certain  E. 
Harkness.  Harkness  declared  that  all  the  enterprises  could 
not  yield  a  revenue  equivalent  to  the  yearly  interest  on  the 
money  expended.  He  maintained  that  in  reality  the  state  had 
little  surplus  produce  to  export,  not  enough  indeed  to  supply 
the  laborers  on  the  works.  Where,  he  asked,  were  the  reasons 
for  the  railroads  to  Cairo?  What  was  the  use  of  a  railroad 
beginning  and  ending  on  the  Mississippi?  Galena  was  the 
only  town  upon  its  route  that  was  not  a  mere  name.  Harkness 
finally  called  upon  the  people  to  express  immediately  their 
disapprobation  of  the  system  and  of  the  men  who  had 
framed  it.6 

Until  the  arguments  of  the  opponents  of  the  system  were 
reenforced  by  actual  failure  of  the  state  finances,  they  did  not 
become  effective.  The  clue  to  the  legislation  of  the  session  of 
1839  is  suggested  in  a  New  York  letter  published  in  the  Peoria 
Register  January  19,  1839,  in  which  the  correspondent  stated 
that  while  London  was  flooded  with  state  stocks,  the  preference 
was  given  to  those  of  free  states  engaged  in  internal  improve- 
ment. If  Illinois  would  face  the  question  of  direct  taxation, 
she  might  with  profit  send  a  commission  to  London  to  borrow. 
Of  course,  the  prospect  of  taxation  caused  a  recurrence  of 
attacks  on  the  system.  Defending  it  against  O.  H.  Browning, 
W.  J.  Gatewood  of  Gallatin  warned  him  that,  if  its  progress 
was  checked,  southern  Illinois  would  retaliate  on  the  canal 
which  in  earlier  years  it  had  sustained.  He  urged  that  the 
statesmanlike  attitude  toward  the  question  was  not  a  calculation 
of  profits  and  losses  in  money  but  rather  a  consideration  of  the 
matter  in  the  broader  aspect  of  the  development  of  the  state. 

6  Illinois  State  Register,  July  14,  1837;  Alton  Telegraph,  March  14,  Septem- 
ber 22,  1838;  Sangamo  Journal,  October  21,  1837;  Peoria  Register,  August  25, 
September  8,  22,  29,  October  27,  November  2,  1838. 


WRECK   OF   THE   SYSTEM  221 

Abraham  Lincoln  suggested,  in  lieu  of  taxation,  financing  the 
proposed  improvements  by  a  speculation  in  the  unsold  land  of 
the  federal  government.7 

The  net  result  of  the  legislative  session  was  an  enlargement 
of  the  system  rather  than  its  curtailment.  In  an  amendatory 
law  certain  further  expenditures  for  additional  work  were 
allowed.  For  the  rest,  a  general  taxation  law  was  passed.  It 
levied  twenty  cents  on  each  one  hundred  dollars  of  property 
in  the  state.  Needless  to  say  this  provoked  opposition  of  the 
bitterest  sort.  At  first,  the  State  Register  was  disposed  to  de- 
fend the  act.  It  pointed  out  that  the  law  really  was  a  poor 
man's  tax  law,  as  it  compelled  speculators  to  list  land  at  its  true 
value  and  carried  no  poll  tax  provision.  It  defended  the 
obnoxious  provision  requiring  the  filing  under  oath  of  one's 
statement  as  being  optional  with  the  assessor  to  require  or  not 
and  insisted  that  the  law  was  not  passed  necessarily  to  support 
the  internal  improvement  system,  and  hence  could  not  be 
directly  connected  with  it.  The  state,  it  was  said,  had  never 
taxed  itself  hitherto  and  as  a  result  had  been  led  into  uncertain 
financial  devices  such  as  plundering  the  school  fund  and  the 
making  of  the  Wiggins'  loan.8 

The  text  of  the  foregoing  comment  was  the  proceedings 
of  a  meeting  in  Bond  county  which  attacked  both  the  internal 
improvement  system  and  the  revenue  law.  The  report  of  the 
meeting,  rather  able  in  its  way,  mercilessly  cut  to  pieces  the 
specious  promises  and  calculations  of  profit  on  which  the  sys- 
tem had  originally  been  founded.  It  stated  that  to  pay  interest 
on  the  cost  of  the  railroads  centering  at  Alton,  sixteen  thousand 
wagonloads  of  freight  must  pass  in  and  out  of  the  city  in  each 
month.  The  Register,  coming  to  see  light  by  April,  had  ceased 
to  defend  the  revenue  law  and  was  inclined  to  leave  it  to  the 
people  for  their  acceptance  or  rejection.  The  meeting  in  Bond 
county  was  followed  by  one  in  Hillsboro,  at  which  A.  P.  Field 
was  present.  It  urged  a  special  session  of  the  general  assembly 

7  Alton  Telegraph,  January  26,  1839;  Illinois  State  Register,  February  19, 
March  15,  1839. 

8  Ibid.,  March  29,  1839. 


222  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

for  the  purpose  of  repealing  the  system.  The  Register  depre- 
cated the  demand  on  the  ground  that  the  cry  for  a  special  ses- 
sion was  a  whig  device  to  break  up  the  system  and  incidentally 
to  elect  a  whig  to  the  United  States  senate.9 

The  opposition  to  the  law  spread  fast.  In  Bond  county  it 
was  proposed  that  the  revenue  law  be  defeated  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  assessors  who  would  refuse  to  serve.  In  one  county 
after  another,  resolutions  attacking  the  system  were  passed, 
frequently  calling  for  a  special  session  to  curtail  or  classify  it. 
The  revenue  law,  too,  was  often  included  in  such  denunciation. 
Furthermore  the  enterprise  was  often  arraigned  as  a  white  ele- 
phant foisted  on  the  state  by  bargain  and  corruption,  sure  to 
involve  the  state  in  hopeless  debt.  Only  occasionally  was  a 
voice  lifted  in  behalf  of  the  system  as  it  then  stood.10 

The  whigs  were  generally  in  favor  of  calling  a  special 
session.  So  far  as  parties  were  aligned  on  the  question,  the 
democrats  were  at  first  opposed  to  it,  alleging  their  fear  that 
the  whigs  might  take  advantage  of  it  to  repeal  the  revenue  law 
or  to  engineer  a  coup  d'etat  respecting  the  secretaryship  of  state 
-and  the  senatorship.  The  whigs  denied  that  they  had  any 
such  intention.  In  the  spring  their  papers  were  flatly  for  a 
classification  of  the  system,  by  which  work  would  be  continued 
only  on  a  part  of  it.  They  pointed  out  that  the  democrats 
were  inconsistent  in  favoring  classification  of  the  system  and 
opposing  a  special  session,  for  if  a  change  were  to  be  of  any 
avail  whatever  it  must  come  immediately.  The  democrats, 
however,  were  by  no  means  completely  in  favor  of  an  alteration 
of  the  system  at  this  time.  Thus  on  June  2 1  the  State  Register 
pronounced  against  classification  reporting  a  scheme  by  which 
the  people  might  yearly  decide  what  sum  they  must  spend  upon 
improvements.  It  pointed  out  the  difficulty  of  satisfying  by  a 
classification  the  jarring  local  interests  and  of  deciding  which 

9  Alton  Telegraph,  March  24,  April  13,  May  24,  1839;  Illinois  State  Register, 
May  29,  1835,  April  5,  19,  1839. 

10  Alton  Telegraph,  May  ir,  18,  1839;  Illinois  State  Register,  June  14,  1839; 
Vandal'ia  Whig,  June  7,  1839;  Peoria  Register,  June  15,  July  6,  1839;  Sangamo 
Journal,  June  28,  July  26,  1839. 


WRECK   OF  THE   SYSTEM  223 

locality  must  suffer  the  abandonment  of  its  pet  enterprise.  The 
same  issue  contained  an  illustration  in  point  in  the  action  of  a 
meeting  in  Edgar  county  which  would  not  consent  to  the  classi- 
fication if  its  own  route  was  omitted.11 

During  the  summer  the  two  parties  shifted  their  position  on 
the  question  of  a  special  session.  In  July,  Carlin  had  offered 
as  excuse  for  not  calling  one  the  fear  that  it  might,  like  the 
previous  session,  extend  the  system  instead  of  curtailing  it. 
In  September,  the  whig  newspapers  professed  that  in  the  pres- 
ent situation  they  could  see  no  need  for  a  special  session,  though 
they  still  inclined  to  favor  classification.  By  November 
democratic  meetings  were  declaring  against  the  internal  im- 
provement system  or  urging  its  classification.  When  Carlin 
finally  called  a  special  session  to  meet  on  December  9  the  State 
Register  took  to  task  the  Chicago  Democrat  for  opposing  his 
action,  adducing  as  reasons  for  the  call  the  fact  that  the  plans, 
even  if  they  were  not  too  extensive  for  1837,  were  certainly 
too  ambitious  for  1839,  and  that  the  people  generally  desired 
a  reduction  of  the  system  to  a  size  proportionable  to  the  state's 
hope  of  completing  it.  Possibly  in  this  argument  there  was 
the  desire  ascribed  to  the  Register  by  the  Journal  of  embarrass- 
ing the  "  Long  Nine  "  of  Sangamon  county  by  compelling  them 
either  to  abandon  their  pledges  or  to  oppose  the  will  of  their 
constituents.  It  was  said  at  the  beginning  of  the  special  session 
that  Carlin  was  coming  to  the  capital  late  so  that  his  message 
might  not  be  revised  by  the  party  leaders  as  it  had  been  in 
1838,  when  a  proposal  for  classification  had  been  omitted  at 
the  behest  of  the  locofoco  leaders.  The  democratic  leaders  at 
the  beginning  of  the  session  were  reported  to  have  disclaimed 
any  responsibility  for  the  call  of  the  assembly,  and  they  left 
Carlin  to  state  the  reasons  for  it  and  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the 
consequences  of  having  called  it.12 

11  Chicago  American,  May  29,   September    5,   October  2,    1839;    Sangamo 
Journal,  May  17,  24,  June  14,  July  19,  1839. 

12  Illinois  State  Register,  November  9,  16,  1839;  Sangamo  Journal,  Decem- 
ber 16,  1838,  May  24,  July  19,  September  23,  November  15,  1839;  Alton  Tele- 
graph, December  14,  1839. 


224  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

In  his  message  to  the  general  assembly  Carlin  pronounced 
in  favor  of  a  classification  of  the  internal  improvement  system 
and  of  the  adoption  of  a  more  economical  method  of  carrying  it 
into  effect.  He  ascribed  the  system  in  the  first  place  to  the 
spirit  of  speculation,  "  the  natural  offspring  of  an  inflated  paper 
circulating  medium,"  that  had  affected  not  only  individuals  but 
even  such  conservative  bodies  as  the  general  assembly.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  it  was  well  understood  that  the  system  was 
the  result  of  mutual  concession  and  compromise  and  that  its 
advantages  were  to  be  dispensed  as  equally  as  possible  through- 
out the  state,  it  was  necessary  to  classify  immediately.  The 
localities  with  favorite  improvements,  which  should  be  elimi- 
nated by  the  scheme  of  classification,  must  bear  their  loss  with 
patriotism  for  the  common  good.  The  message  detailed  the 
progress  of  the  financial  negotiations  in  London  for  funds  to 
support  the  system,  which  will  be  considered  later.  The  session 
finally  provided  for  the  cessation  of  work  upon  the  system  and 
in  effect  by  so  doing  brought  about  its  permanent  abandonment. 
Thenceforth  the  state  was  confronted  with  the  problem  of 
paying  for  the  extravagance  into  which  it  had  entered  and  from 
which  it  withdrew  too  early  to  obtain  any  considerable  advan- 
tages.13 

The  attempt  to  obtain  in  exchange  for  state  bonds  the 
funds  with  which  to  carry  on  the  internal  improvement  enter- 
prise had  begun  in  1837,  when  Mather  and  Oakley,  the  fund 
commissioners,  endeavored  to  negotiate  a  loan  in  New  York. 
Finding  no  success  there,  they  turned  to  the  State  Bank  and  to 
the  Bank  of  Illinois.  The  State  Bank  agreed  to  take  seventeen 
hundred  and  sixty-five  bonds  of  one  thousand  dollars  each  and 
the  Bank  of  Illinois  nine  hundred  similar  bonds.  A  second 
appeal  to  the  New  York  market  was  more  successful  than  the 
first.  The  commissioners  sold  a  million  dollars  in  state  internal 
improvement  stock  to  Nicholas  Biddle,  a  similar  amount  to  J. 
Irvine,  and  three  or  four  blocks  of  one  hundred  thousand  each 

18  Illinois  State  Register,  January  4,  1840;  Alton  Telegraph,  January  25, 
February  8,  1840;  governor's  message  to  legislature,  January  8,  1845,  in  House 
Journal,  1839-1840,  2  session,  14. 


WRECK   OF   THE   SYSTEM  225 

to  other  capitalists.  May  7,  1839,  the  fund  commissioners, 
M.  M.  Rawlings  and  Charles  Oakley,  sold  to  John  Delafield 
$283,000  in  state  bonds,  interest  on  the  bonds  beginning  May 
7,  1839.  Delafield,  by  the  terms  of  the  contract,  was  to  pay 
for  the  bonds  in  five  installments  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  each 
on  the  first  of  December,  February,  March,  April,  and  May, 
and  one  of  thirty-three  thousand  dollars  on  June  i.  The  con- 
tract certainly  was  not  favorable  to  the  state.  The  committee 
also  made  some  sales  of  bonds  in  smaller  amounts  to  eastern 
banks  and  one  more  considerable  to  the  contractor  for  the 
Northern  Cross  railway. 

Having  exhausted  the  possibilities  of  the  New  York  money 
market  the  Illinois  agents  turned  to  London.  On  August  22, 
1839,  Rawlings  and  Oakley  made  a  contract  with  John  Wright 
and  Company  of  London.  By  this  contract,  which  was  rather 
elaborately  drawn,  the  Illinois  agents  agreed  to  turn  over  to 
Wright  for  sale  $1,500,000  in  state  bonds  in  return  for  two 
advances  and  gave  him  the  option  on  the  flotation  of  a  further 
sum  to  the  amount  of  $4,000,000.  The  borrowers  on  behalf 
of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal,  who  had  been  working 
independently,  had  now  reached  the  same  point  in  their  pursuit 
of  money.  Although  the  commissioners  had  disposed  of  a  con- 
siderable number  of  bonds  to  federal  and  state  banks,  to  pri- 
vate banks  and  investors,  the  terms  were  not  advantageous  to 
the  state ;  and  they  too  were  obliged  to  seek  money  in  London. 
On  October  30,  1839,  Reynolds  and  Young  made  an  agreement 
with  Wright  and  Company  for  the  sale  of  a  million  dollars  in 
canal  bonds.14 

No  sooner  had  this  series  of  loans  been  consummated  than 
the  whole  financial  house  of  cards  began  to  fall.  First  the 
stages  of  the  negotiations  with  the  Wrights  may  be  followed. 
There  was  a  fatal  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  interpretation 
of  the  law  prescribing  that  the  Illinois  bonds  be  sold  at  not  less 
than  par.  The  contract  for  a  million  in  sterling  bonds  of  the 
state  had  required  Wright  to  advance  but  $250,000,  and  in 

14  Reports  General  Assembly,  1839-1840,  house,  393. 


226  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

return  for  this  he  was  to  be  the  state  selling  agent,  deducting 
his  commission  from  the  proceeds.  Further,  the  bonds  were 
drawn  at  the  face  value  of  £225  but  were  to  yield  only  $1,000 
in  the  United  States,  although  the  exchange  between  London 
and  Illinois  might  be  as  high  as  fourteen  per  cent  In  remitting 
for  interest  and  for  final  payment,  therefore,  the  state  would 
remit  far  more  than  the  par  value  of  the  amounts  due  trans- 
lated into  American  currency  in  Illinois.  A  senate  committee 
declared  the  contract  null  and  void,  insisting  that  Wright  was 
no  better  than  a  financial  shark.  The  report  was  drawn  in 
O.  H.  Browning's  somewhat  flowery  style.  "Well  may  we 
say  of  London,"  exclaimed  he,  " '  the  shark  is  there,  and  the 
shark's  prey, —  the  spendthrift  and  the  leech  that  sucks 
him.'  " 15  Hacker  retorted  with  a  report  from  the  committee 
of  the  senate  on  internal  improvement,  indulging  in  some 
rather  cleverly  put  personal  allusions  derogatory  to  Brown- 
ing.16 The  majority  and  minority  of  the  house  committee  dif- 
fered as  to  the  legality  of  the  sale  of  canal  bonds,  which  Wright 
had  been  permitted  to  sell  at  91  or  over  in  London,  retaining 
for  himself  any  excess  between  91  and  95  and  above  95  divid- 
ing his  profits  with  the  state.  A  joint  judiciary  committee  re- 
ported against  the  legality  of  the  sale.17 

Naturally  such  action  by  the  Illinois  general  assembly  did 
no  good  to  the  financial  interests  of  the  state  in  London. 
Whether  Wright  had  intentionally  misled  the  representatives 
of  the  state  or  whether  he  had  merely  been  too  sanguine  in 
interpreting  the  contract  and  laws  which  they  brought  with 
them,  it  is  not  necessary  to  state.  But  the  report  of  the  Illinois 
committee  compelled  him  for  a  time  to  cease  his  operations, 
even  though  the  general  assembly  did  not  adopt  the  report 
recommending  the  disavowal  of  the  contract.  Carlin,  under 
the  circumstances,  could  not  in  February  of  1840  see  his  way 
clear  to  continue  the  contract  with  Wright.  The  contractors 
on  the  canal,  however,  proposed  to  proceed  with  the  work,  if 

15  Senate  Journal,  1839-1840,  special  session,  140. 

16  Reports  General  Assembly,  1839-1840,  senate,  209. 

17  Ibid.,  1839-1840,  house,  123,  149,  393. 


WRECK   OF   THE   SYSTEM  227 

they  might  receive  canal  bonds  in  payment  which  they  could 
hypothecate  with  Wright,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  con- 
tract which  the  legislature  had  not  indorsed.  Young,  mean- 
while, did  not  cease  to  urge  on  Carlin  that  the  state  contract 
with  Wright  be  carried  out.  Finally,  on  May  i,  Carlin 
yielded  and  confirmed  the  sale  of  the  million  canal  bonds. 
Characteristically  he  protested  to  the  last  that  it  was  not  a  sale 
at  par  within  the  meaning  of  the  act.18  But  Carlin's  hesitation 
and  the  attitude  of  the  general  assembly  had  done  their  work. 
It  was  too  late  to  save  Wright's  position  in  London.  Over- 
loaded with  the  state's  bonds  and  possibly  suffering  from 
the  malignity  of  other  houses  opposed  to  dealing  with 
Americans  and  the  American  states,  in  November  of  1840 
Wright  became  bankrupt.  William  F.  Thornton,  president 
of  the  board  of  commissioners,  had  previously  on  July  20 
agreed  to  sell  at  a  rate  of  83  to  Magniac,  Smiths  and  Com- 
pany £225,000  sterling  in  bonds  belonging  to  the  contractors,19 
and  for  a  time  that  firm  attended  to  the  financial  interests  of 
the  state. 

In  apportioning  blame  for  the  disaster  to  the  Wrights  it  is 
impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  in  a  certain  degree  their 
misfortune  was  their  own  fault.  The  interpretation  which  they 
gave  to  the  term  "  par  "  was  certainly  a  forced  one,  and  while 
in  all  probability  in  view  of  the  way  Illinois  securities  were 
marketed  no  better  rates  could  have  been  obtained,  they  should 
have  been  more  cautious;  and  even  in  spite  of  any  representa- 
tion made  to  them,  they  should  have  recognized  the  fact  that 
they  should  have  trusted  their  own  judgment  as  to  the  terms 
of  the  loan  rather  than  the  judgment  of  such  men  as  Young  and 
Reynolds.  At  the  same  time  the  vacillation  of  Carlin  and  the 
general  assembly  at  the  critical  moment  undoubtedly  con- 
tributed to  rendering  the  financial  position  of  the  Wrights 
critical. 

It  was  in  the  United  States  that  the  effect  of  the  fund  com- 

18  Reports  General  Assembly,  1840-1841,  senate,  360,  362,  363,  364,  373,  374. 

19  Ibid.,  1840-1841,  senate,  30  ff.,  393. 


228  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

missioners'  policy  was  most  apparent.  The  Atlantic  Bank 
which  had  bought  the  public  improvement  bonds  broke  before 
the  Illinois  bonds  had  passed  out  of  its  hands,  and  these  were 
ordered  returned  to  the  state's  order.  John  Tillson  and  the 
other  two  fund  commissioners  worked  at  cross-purposes,  and 
Tillson  was  accused  of  malfeasance.  It  is  not  easy  to  deter- 
mine whether  or  not  he  was  guilty,  but  certainly  he  was 
hoodwinked  in  at  least  one  negotiation  with  the  result  that  the 
security  for  fifty  bonds  sold  became  worthless.  He  had  also 
private  dealings  with  Delafield  which  may  have  affected  his 
course  as  a  public  officer.  The  state's  contract  with  Delafield 
soon  led  to  a  lawsuit  devised  to  prevent  him  from  disposing  to 
innocent  third  parties  of  the  state  bonds  of  which  he  had  gained 
possession.  Governor  Carlin  had  protested  and  rightly  against 
the  terms  of  Reynolds'  contract  with  the  United  States  Bank 
by  which  the  state  was  compelled  to  pay  principal  and  interest 
in  London,  thereby  giving  the  bank  at  home  a  premium  based 
on  exchange.  Furthermore,  the  use  of  various  agencies  for 
marketing  the  state  bonds  made  it  impossible  for  any  financial 
house  to  deal  in  them  successfully  or  to  hold  them  for  a  favor- 
able turn  of  the  market.  Again  and  again  large  customers 
of  the  state,  like  the  Wrights,  had  to  complain  that  parcels 
of  bonds  that  had  come  on  the  market  for  small  pur- 
chasers were  being  passed  about  at  rates  which  spoiled  the 
sale  of  larger  holdings.  In  1839  the  canal  commissioners 
began  the  issuance  of  checks  to  pay  contractors  on  the 
canal;  and  by  fall  this  method  of  financing  was  completely 
out  of  control.20 

The  problem  of  providing  for  interest  on  the  state  loan 
was  becoming  increasingly  difficult.  An  act  of  the  session  of 
1839—1840  provided  for  the  payment  of  interest  on  canal 
bonds  out  of  sales  of  canal  lands.21  The  interest  on  state  bonds 
held  in  London  due  in  July,  1840,  was  paid  out  of  £20,000 
received  from  John  Wright;  and  for  the  payment  of  interest 

20 Reports  General  Assembly,  1839-1840,  senate,  370;  house,  55;  ibid.,  1840- 
1841,  senate,  68. 

21  Laws  of  1840,  p.  80. 


WRECK   OF  THE   SYSTEM  229 

in  the  United  States,  Thornton  borrowed  $5,000  at  home. 
Far  more  difficult  was  the  problem  of  providing  interest  in 
January,  1841.  In  December  the  legislature  passed  an  act 
allowing  the  hypothecation  of  bonds.  But  even  with  this 
proviso  it  was  only  by  desperate  effort  that  R.  F.  Barrett,  the 
fund  commissioner,  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  money  necessary 
for  the  interest.  At  the  beginning  of  the  session  the  assembly 
adopted  a  law  levying  a  tax  of  ten  cents  on  the  hundred  dollars 
for  the  interest  on  the  loan  and  allowing  the  hypothecation  of 
bonds  to  anticipate  it,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  certain  demo- 
crats at  allowing  banks  to  dictate  the  policy  of  the  state  in  this 
particular.  The  interest  far  July,  1841,  was  obtained  by  John 
D.  Whiteside  as  fund  commissioner  in  return  for  the  hypothe- 
cation with  Charles  Macalister  and  Henry  Stebbins  of  804 
bonds,  a  proceeding  which  saddled  the  state  for  years  to  come 
with  a  dispute  involving  the  question  of  the  disposal  of  bonds 
to  innocent  third  parties.22 

Upon  the  abandonment  of  the  internal  improvement  system 
the  vital  question  was  how  the  state  might  pay  what  it  had  al- 
ready borrowed  to  construct  that  system  rather  than  how  the 
state  might  obtain  funds  to  complete  it.  Interest  in  the  ques- 
tion of  internal  improvement  shifted  to  the  attempt  of  persons 
interested  in  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  to  engage  the  state 
to  find  the  funds  necessary  to  proceed  with  that  work.  In 
Cook  county  the  canal  question  was  an  extremely  important 
one  in  local  politics.  Thus  in  the  summer  of  1840,  partly  as  a 
result  of  a  disagreement  in  the  democratic  convention,  it  was 
urged,  especially  by  the  Chicago  American,  that  the  democratic 
ticket  was  anti-canal;  and  a  canal  ticket  was  nominated.  The 
whigs  nominated  no  candidates  against  them  and  apparently 
the  ticket  drew  a  good  share  of  the  whig  support,  the  canal 
laborers  alone  being  held  responsible  for  the  defeat  of  the  canal 
ticket.  John  Pearson  was  elected  senator  over  James  Turney; 
Ebenezer  Peck,  Albert  G.  Leary,  and  Richard  Murphy  repre- 

22  Reports  General  Assembly,  1840-1841,  senate,  327;  ibid.,  1842-1843,  senate, 
75;  Laws  of  1841,  p.  167;  Illinois  State  Register,  December  18,  23,  1840. 


23o  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

sentatives  over  W.  B.  Ogden,  John  M.  Wilson,  and  G.  A.  O. 
Beaumont.23 

The  canal  ticket,  though  defeated,  had  its  revenge,  for  the 
canal  delegation,  as  it  was  called,  had  no  success  in  its  attempt 
to  push  the  interests  of  the  canal  in  the  legislature.  The  whig 
papers  stated  that  the  partisanship  of  the  canal  members  alien- 
ated the  friends  of  the  canal  in  the  general  assembly  and 
frustrated  their  attempts  to  secure  a  measure  for  its  continu- 
ation. Pearson  especially  was  accused  of  committing  the 
unpardonable  sin  of  interfering  with  the  local  measures  of  his 
fellow  senators,  and  the  fact  that  the  Cook  county  delegation, 
worked  for  the  election  of  a  partisan  canal  commissioner  dis- 
gusted the  whigs,  who  would  otherwise  have  been  disposed  to 
favor  the  canal.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause,  the  legis- 
lature finally  adjourned  without  making  any  provision  for  the 
continuance  of  the  work.24  According  to  the  Alton  Telegraph, 
the  canal  members  discovered  that  their  party  would  not  sup- 
port them  in  behalf  of  the  canal,  and  their  partisanship  drove 
away  whig  support  in  the  senate.  The  vote  on  the  question 
bears  out  this  statement  fairly  well.25 

Certainly,  whether  or  not  the  canal  delegation  could  have 
guided  their  enterprise  more  skillfully,  there  was  great  wrath 
in  the  north  among  both  whigs  and  democrats.  As  the  San- 
gamo  Journal  put  it  in  commenting  on  the  result  of  the  session 
of  1840—1841,  the  delegation  had  upset  the  judiciary,  turned 
out  Thornton,  the  canal  commissioner,  elected  Peck  to  an  office, 
and  as  a  result  had  stopped  work  on  the  canal  by  antagonizing 
its  friends.  The  State  Register  had  to  take  the  Chicago  Demo- 
crat to  task  for  its  attacks  upon  the  legislature.  The  political 

23 Belleville  Advocate,  August  23,  1840;  Chicago  American,  June  26,  July 
27,  30,  August  5,  1840. 

24  Alton    Telegraph,   February   13,    1841;    Chicago   American,   January   14, 
February  15,  March  18,  1841;  the  contractors  had  proposed  forming  a  corpora- 
tion to  contract  with  the  canal  commissioners  for  the  completion  of  the  canal. 
According  to  the  American  it  appealed  to  the  canal  members  to  give  this  project 
a  chance  at  success  by  refusing  to  caucus  for  the  appointment  of  canal  commis- 
sioners, warning  them  if  they  did  so  they  would  prejudice  the  whigs  against  the 
measure. 

25  Alton  Telegraph,  April  10,  1841. 


WRECK   OF   THE   SYSTEM  231 

careers  of  all  members  of  the  delegation  except  those  already 
ensconced  in  office  were  at  an  end,  an  effect  which  possibly 
"  Long  John  "  Wentworth,  whose  views  may  be  found  in  the 
Chicago  Democrat,  did  not  deplore.  Certainly  neither  Leary, 
Murphy,  Pearson,  nor  Peck  ever  again  interfered  with  his 
political  ambitions  in  the  north.26 

The  canal  region  did  its  best  to  undo  the  fatal  work  of  its 
delegation.  Meetings  were  held  in  the  north  demanding  a 
special  session  to  devise  a  means  for  the  continuance  of  work 
on  the  canal.  The  newspapers  issued  similar  appeals  and  de- 
mands for  the  resignation  of  the  canal  members  in  the  hope 
that  more  efficient  ones  might  figure  in  the  special  session. 
Carlin,  though  he  did  not  call  a  special  session,  was  induced  to 
make  promises  of  issuance  of  state  bonds  for  the  continuation 
of  work  on  the  canal.  The  Sangamo  Journal  protested  that 
the  issue  of  bonds  was  impossible,  declaring  that  the  only  relief 
would  be  by  reverting  to  the  method  of  a  chartered  company. 
Being  on  the  line  of  the  canal  the  Chicago  American  was  of 
course  in  favor  of  Carlin's  plan,  but  generally  throughout  the 
state  the  whigs  opposed  the  hypothecation  of  bonds  for  the 
benefit  of  the  canal  or  for  any  other  purpose  whatever.  The 
reason  is  to  be  found  perhaps  in  clippings  from  the  New  York 
Herald  to  the  effect  that  the  hypothecation  of  bonds  to  Macal- 
ister  and  Stebbins  had  ruined  the  credit  of  the  state.  The 
Sangamo  Journal  was  inclined  to  think  that,  while  the  state 
would  not  repudiate  and  would  ultimately  pay  all,  the  bond- 
holders must  be  resigned  to  wait  for  a  few  years  without 
interest  until  the  restoration  of  prosperity  under  a  whig  admin- 
istration in  the  nation  would  make  it  possible  for  Illinois  to 
pay  off  her  seventeen  millions  of  debt.27 

Eventually  the  hard  times,  the  overwhelming  debt,  the 
difficulty  of  meeting  even  such  taxes  as  were  laid,  produced 
throughout  the  state  a  cry  for  repudiation.  In  the  general 
assembly  of  1841  one  member,  describing  conditions  in  his 

28  Sangamo  Journal,  March  26,  1841;  Illinois  State  Register,  March  19,  1841. 
27  Sangamo  Journal,  September  10,  October  22,  November  19,  December  3, 
17,  1841;  Alton  Telegraph,  November  13,  December  n,  1841. 


232  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

neighborhood,  declared  that  magistrates  and  constables  were 
the  only  business  men.  In  Bond  county,  a  meeting  to  protest 
against  additional  taxation  laid  down  the  doctrine  that  the 
state  was  not  morally  bound  to  pay  its  debts.  In  Montgomery 
a  nonpartisan  meeting  called  for  frugality  in  government,  de- 
nounced the  baleful  results  of  government  debts,  and  advanced 
the  doctrine  that  there  must  be  no  taxation  to  pay  principal  or 
interest  on  debt  except  in  so  far  as  the  people  had  received 
some  return  for  it.  In  Scott  county  it  was  said  that  the  bonds 
were  bills  of  credit  and  as  such  unconstitutional  and  not  binding 
upon  the  state. 

Both  whig  and  democratic  papers  denounced  the  doctrine 
of  repudiation  as  stated  by  such  extremists,  but  there  was  some 
sparring  between  the  two  parties  in  attempting  each  to  force 
the  other  to  a  definite  stand.  First  the  Sangamo  Journal  de- 
clared that  a  proposed  anti-repudiation  article  in  the  democratic 
state  platform  of  1841  had  been  tabled.  On  the  other  hand 
the  Register  declared  that  the  Journal  had  come  out  for  repudi- 
ation or  for  taxation  sufficient  to  pay  the  debt;  and  the  Register 
pronounced  the  people  too  honest  for  the  one  and  too  poor  for 
the  other.  On  December  16,  the  Alton  Telegraph  declared 
the  Battle  Axe  to  be  the  only  paper  in  the  state  in  favor  of 
repudiation;  but  by  November  13,  it  had  declared  that  the 
payment  of  interest  should  stop  unless  the  bondholders  would 
take  still  more  bonds  at  par.  It  pointed  out  truly  enough  the 
fact  that  Illinois  bonds  had  been  hypothecated  at  thirty-three 
cents  on  the  dollar,  while  Indiana  bonds  on  which  the  interest 
even  was  not  paid  were  sold  at  a  higher  rate.  It  believed  that 
the  legislature,  refusing  longer  to  issue  state  bonds  unless 
creditors  would  take  them  at  par,  should  levy  as  heavy  a  tax  as 
possible  for  their  ultimate  payment.28 

The  payment  of  the  July,  1841,  interest  was  the  last 
attempt  to  keep  the  state's  finances  solvent.  From  that  time 
the  state  defaulted  on  her  interest,  and  her  bonds  fell  far  below 

28  Illinois  State  Register,  October  29,  November  5,  1841;  Sangamo  Journal, 
December  24,  1841. 


WRECK   OF  THE   SYSTEM  233 

par.  The  financial  situation  sank  into  deeper  and  deeper  con- 
fusion. No  proper  accounts  were  kept,  and  the  progress  of 
the  various  fund  commissioners  in  settling  with  the  state's 
debtors,  such  as  Delafield  and  the  New  York  banks,  multiplied 
the  intricacy  of  the  situation.  The  party  jealousies  which  had 
hampered  and  biased  the  work  of  the  state's  financial  officers 
from  the  beginning  continued  in  political  squabbles,  such  as 
that  one  on  the  canal  route  between  the  friends  of  Thornton 
and  of  Isaac  N.  Morris.  The  taxation  law  of  1841  was  used 
by  surrounding  states  as  an  argument  by  which  to  attract  emi- 
grants from  Illinois  to  their  own  borders.  The  oft  repeated 
statement  that  Illinois  was  a  ruined  state  was  heard  on  every 
hand.  The  railroad  lines  which  had  been  intended  to  make 
her  the  commercial  center  of  the  union  were  abandoned,  finding 
employment  only  where  thrifty  farmers  used  their  rights  of 
way  to  grow  beans.29 

In  the  maze  of  proposals,  or  appeals  for  relief,  that  came 
from  all  sides,  not  much  can  be  seen  in  1842  but  the  claims  of 
personal,  factional,  sectional,  or  party  interest.  In  1842  there 
was  a  recrudescence  of  repudiation  sentiment  which  was,  how- 
ever, generally  frowned  upon.  County  meetings  here  and  there 
demanded  strict  economy  in  the  legislature  in  the  way  of  sala- 
ries and  the  elimination  of  such  time-wasting  devices  as 
committees  of  the  whole  and  allowing  members  to  speak  more 
than  one  hour  on  a  question.  From  the  line  of  the  canal  ema- 
nated various  proposals  for  continuing  that  work,  which  still 
went  on.  Sometimes  these  implied  obtaining  a  larger  federal 
land  grant,  the  sale  of  canal  lots  and  lands,  or  the  use  of  the 
distribution  fund.  The  people  of  southern  Illinois  rather  be- 
lieved that  the  distribution  fund  should  go  to  rehabilitate  the 
school  fund.  Various  schemes  for  the  system  as  a  whole  were 
proposed.  The  Chicago  American  of  May  1 1,  1 842,  published 
a  plan  calling  for  drastic  economy,  a  revision  of  local  govern- 
ment in  the  interest  of  economical  administration,  and  taxation 

29  Alton  Telegraph,  August  27,  1842;  Illinois  State  Register,  February  4, 
August  26,  1842;  Chicago  American,  June  14,  July  27,  1842. 


234  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

to  pay  the  interest  on  the  bonds;  for  the  property  itself  the 
newspaper  went  back  to  the  old  idea  of  1836  of  construction 
by  chartered  companies,  to  whose  stock  the  state  should  sub- 
scribe. The  State  Register  on  behalf  of  Gatewood  contended 
with  the  Telegraph  for  the  honor  of  the  authorship  of  a  scheme, 
the  crux  of  which  was  to  dispose  of  the  state  lands  at  the  gen- 
erous estimate  of  $20  an  acre.  The  Telegraph  and  the 
Register  were  unable  also  to  agree  as  to  the  amount  of  the  debt, 
the  Register  insisting  that  for  practical  purposes  the  bonds 
sold  by  the  bank,  the  appropriated  school  fund,  the  federal 
deposit,  and  all  bonds  irregularly  issued  should  be  deducted  to 
the  amount  of  six  million.  Another  proposal  was  that  the  state 
sell  its  property  for  bonds  and  scrip;  the  distribution  fund 
according  to  this  proposal  was  to  go  to  the  school  fund.  The 
Sangamo  Journal  published  a  letter  which  offered  the  solution 
of  a  tax  of  thirty  cents  on  the  hundred  to  be  directed  to  payment 
of  the  state  debt,  using  the  proceeds  of  state  lands  and  the  dis- 
tribution fund  for  expenses  of  government.  This  letter  further 
suggested  dividing  the  debt  pro  rata  to  real  and  personal 
property  throughout  the  state  and  exempting  from  its  shares 
of  the  debt  each  tract  which  paid  the  share  thus  alloted  to  it.30 
The  very  extravagance  of  these  schemes  is  eloquent  of  the 
hopelessness  of  the  situation,  as  it  appeared  to  men  of  the  time. 
As  the  political  situation  stood  at  the  outset  of  the  guberna- 
torial campaign  of  1842,  it  was  to  Joseph  Duncan  that  the 
question  naturally  presented  itself  for  decision.  He  had  op- 
posed the  system  in  the  beginning,  and  now  running  for  office 
as  an  elder  statesman  it  was  for  him  to  find  the  state  a  solution. 
But  Duncan's  mind  could  supply  him  with  nothing  but  nega- 
tives. He  would  not  issue  more  bonds  or  hypothecate  them, 
and  he  would  seek  additional  land  grants  for  the  canal,  but 
beyond  that  apparently  he  could  not  go.  He  proposed  to  sell 
off  all  state  properties  and  bank  stock,  taking  state  indebtedness 
in  return.  Like  most  whigs,  he  apparently  thought  the  only 

30  Sangamo  Journal,  March  25,  April  i,  1842;  Alton  Telegraph,  January  8, 
29,  August  13,  1842;  Chicago  American,  December  i,  1841;  Illinois  State  Regis- 
ter, February  25,  March  25,  May  27,  1842. 


WRECK   OF  THE   SYSTEM  235 

possible  solution  was  the  return  of  his  party  to  power  and  an 
enlargement  under  their  direction  of  the  field  of  the  federal 
government.  He  relied  on  federal  measures,  banks,  tariffs, 
distribution,  and  the  resulting  prosperity.  To  face  the  prob- 
lem as  one  for  the  state  to  solve  by  application  to  it  of  her  own 
abilities  and  of  her  own  slender  resources  was  a  step  beyond 
Duncan.  The  answer  of  Illinois  had  to  be  made  in  other  terms 
than  advocacy  of  federal  legislation,  and  it  was  to  be  made 
through  a  man  of  very  different  type  from  Duncan.31 

*lSangamo  Journal,  March  4,  July  22,  1842;  Alton  Telegraph,  July  2,  1842. 


XII.     THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  PARTY  REGULARITY, 

1834-1838 

OUT  of  the  presidential  contest  in  Illinois  in  1835-1836, 
emerged  the  forms  of  the  whig  and  democratic  parties; 
out  of  the  struggle  over  the  subtreasury  and  the  specie  circular 
in  1837—1839  came  a  close  alignment  of  the  parties  on  party 
measures.  Between  1835  and  1839  the  doctrine  of  the  neces- 
sity of  party  regularity  was  forced  on  the  democratic  party, 
and  that  party  became  a  closely  organized  body  with  accepted 
principles.  No  longer  could  a  man  be  saved  politically  by  the 
name  of  Jackson  unless  he  did  the  works  of  Jackson. 

Nationally  Van  Buren  was  the  candidate  of  the  followers 
of  Jackson  who  were  beginning  to  term  themselves  democrats. 
The  old  Clay-Adams  men  mustered  around  candidates  with  a 
local  appeal  such  as  Webster  or  William  Henry  Harrison, 
hoping  thus  to  beat  the  Van  Buren  forces  in  detail  and  throw 
the  election  into  the  house  of  representatives.  The  followers 
of  Hugh  Lawson  White  of  Tennessee  occupied  a  somewhat 
different  position.  Practically,  they  were  allies  of  the  opposi- 
tion to  Van  Buren.  They  professed,  however,  that  they  were 
really  Jackson  men,  loyal  to  their  past  professions  of  faith,  but 
unable  to  swallow  the  personality  and  methods  of  Van  Buren; 
and  they  were  inclined  to  repel  indignantly  the  charges  of  their 
opponents  that  they  were  deserters  to  the  Clay-Adams  party 
of  1828  and  1832. 

The  contest  for  the  presidency  in  Illinois  seemed  at  the 
outset  of  the  campaign  to  be  between  Van  Buren  and  White, 
and  the  supporters  of  each  sought  for  all  the  aid  they  might 
derive  from  the  great  name  of  Jackson.  There  could  be  no 
doubt  of  Jackson's  support  of  Van  Buren;  and  accordingly  the 
followers  of  White  in  their  claims  were  compelled  to  argue 

236 


STRUGGLE   FOR   PARTY   REGULARITY   237 

that  they  were  the  true  original  Jackson  men  and  that  they  held 
fast  to  the  principles  that  Jackson  had  held  and  abandoned. 
Behind  this  willingness  of  even  his  opponents  to  trade  on  the 
traditions  of  Jacksonism  there  was,  of  course,  an  intention  to 
play  over  the  game  that  had  elected  Duncan  governor  in  1834 
and  to  consolidate  the  anti- Jackson  vote  on  an  ostensibly  Jack- 
son candidate.  This  purpose  the  Sangamo  Journal  unwittingly 
revealed  by  its  remark  that  Van  Buren  would  run  no  stronger 
in  Illinois  than  Kinney,  for  his  party  was  Kinney's. 

The  Van  Buren  men  naturally  argued  that  White  was  a 
renegade  from  Jackson  and  his  principles  and  a  nullifier, 
seduced  by  Clay  to  follow  out  the  scheme  of  splitting  the  nation 
between  various  candidates  only  to  elect  a  whig  in  the  house  or 
senate.  Accordingly  they  insisted  on  the  need  of  conventions 
to  insure  party  unity  and  on  the  necessity  of  party  regularity. 
The  Van  Buren  men,  notably  the  congressmen,  sought  to  bring 
this  about,  as  the  whigs  claimed,  by  using  national  patronage 
to  build  up  an  Albany  regency  in  Illinois.  The  Sangamo  Jour- 
nal pronounced  that  this  was  the  intent  of  every  appointment 
made  during  the  past  six  months.  It  repeatedly  accused  the 
Springfield  clique,  May,  Forquer,  Calhoun,  and  Cartwright, 
some  of  them  late  converts  to  Jacksonism,  of  seeking  to  read 
out  of  the  party  on  account  of  their  loyalty  to  White  such  old 
time  Jackson  men  as  Bowling  Green  and  A.  G.  Herndon.  This 
in  a  nutshell  was  the  White  argument. 

The  number  of  Jackson  leaders  who  supported  White  may 
be  roughly  estimated  by  a  consideration  of  certain  votes  in  the 
Illinois  assembly  on  political  resolutions  in  1835—1836.  On 
December  19,  1835,  by  a  vote  of  thirteen  to  twelve  the  senate 
passed  resolutions  attacking  Van  Buren  as  an  old  federalist 
and  a  former  opposer  of  Jackson,  and  nominating  White  with 
a  disclaimer  of  the  intervention  of  caucus  or  convention.  On 
January  15,  eleven  members  spread  on  the  journal  a  protest 
against  the  truth  of  the  resolutions  and  the  expediency  of 
bringing  them  forward.1  The  fact  that  on  December  12  a 

1  Senate  Journal,  1835-1836,  2  session,  76,  256. 


238  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

resolution  instructing  the  state's  senators  to  vote  to  expunge 
the  censure  of  Jackson  passed  by  a  vote  of  fifteen  to  ten  affords 
an  opportunity  to  gauge  the  amount  of  Jackson  strength  for 
White.  Benjamin  Bond,  Levin  Lane,  and  James  A.  White- 
side  voted  both  for  expunging  and  for  the  White  resolution; 
and  they  may  be  set  down  as  the  measure  of  the  Jackson- White 
strength.2  Applying  a  similar  test  of  the  house,  only  three  men 
who  voted  for  expunging  voted  for  a  resolution  deprecating 
conventions.  Only  four,  Peter  Butler,  Thomas  Hunt,  Thomas 
Trower,  and  Milton  Carpenter  voted  for  expunging  and 
against  a  preamble  attacking  White's  supporters  as  nullifiers 
and  federalists.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  alignment  of 
the  rank  and  file  the  leaders  were  certainly  not  seriously 
divided. 

The  opposition  had  to  learn  that  it  was  not  always  possible 
in  a  national  election  to  play  the  same  game  that  had  elected 
Duncan  in  1834  —  running  a  candidate  who  could  be  posed  as 
a  Jackson  man  and  at  the  same  time  receive  a  solid  whig  vote. 
Their  electoral  ticket  was  assailed  by  the  enemy  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  hand-picked  and  that  too  in  Sangamon  county.3  As 
a  partial  concession  to  the  complaints  of  friends  in  the  north 
that  the  Military  Tract  was  unrepresented,  Bowling  Green,  a 
Jackson  man  of  1832,  resigned;  and  to  succeed  him  Colonel  A. 
G.  S.  Wight  was  named.  By  whom  was  he  nominated,  the 
democrats  asked  at  once.4  The  remainder  of  the  ticket  was 
composed  of  James  A.  Whiteside,  Benjamin  Bond,  and  Levin 
Lane,  the  three  men  who  had  voted  for  both  the  expunging 
and  the  White  resolutions;  the  fifth  man,  John  Henry,  had 
stood  firmly  against  both  expunging  and  against  the  convention 
system.5 

2 Senate  Journal,  1835-1836,  2  session,  30,  78;  House  Journal,  1835-1836,  2 
session,  63,  211,  233,  235. 

8  Chicago  Democrat,  January  20,  February  17,  24,  1836.  The  Galena 
Gazette  and  the  Jacksonville  Nevis  condemned  the  ticket  as  hand-picked  in 
Sangamon. 

4  Sangamo  Journal,  March  26,  April  16,  1836;  Chicago  Democrat,  May 
4,  1836. 

8  He  repeatedly  introduced  anti-convention  resolutions.  House  Journal, 
1835-1836,  2  session,  27,  63,  234. 


STRUGGLE   FOR   PARTY   REGULARITY  239 

But  even  if  Jackson  men  could  support  White,  who  had 
apostasized  only  on  the  bank  question  and  by  his  attempt  to 
rescind  rather  than  to  expunge,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that 
they  could  with  equal  facility  support  Harrison  who  had 
scarcely  a  tinge  of  Jacksonism.  The  democrats  can  hardly  be 
blamed  for  regarding  the  question  as  to  whether  the  White 
electors  should  vote  for  Harrison  if  Van  Buren  could  so  be 
defeated  as  one  which  would  strip  the  White  electors  who  con- 
sented to  do  this  of  even  the  pretense  to  Jacksonism.  Bond, 
however,  pledged  himself  to  vote  for  Harrison  in  such  a  con- 
tingency, and  the  Sangamo  Journal  professed  to  be  satisfied 
that  the  others  would  do  the  same.6 

The  Harrison  movement  appeared  to  gain  ground  as  the 
campaign  went  on.  There  had  always  been  an  undercurrent  of 
sentiment  in  Illinois  in  his  favor.  The  Mt.  Carmel  Sentinel 
had  favored  him  at  first,  though  it  had  forsaken  him  for  White 
without  insisting  on  a  convention.  The  Chicago  American  in 
1835  had  leaned  toward  him.  In  the  fall  of  1836,  the 
American  and  the  Sentinel  were  supporting  him  and  the  Tele- 
graph was  friendly  to  his  candidacy.  The  democrats  had 
perhaps  foreseen  this,  as  ever  since  February  their  newspapers 
had  been  firing  occasional  shots  aimed  in  Harrison's  direction. 
The  first  Harrison  meeting  in  the  state,  according  to  the  Regis- 
ter, was  held  in  Madison  county  on  August  13,  1836. 
Harrison  was  set  forward  as  the  friend  of  the  west,  the  friend 
of  the  small  farmer,  the  first  to  propose  the  sale  of  public  lands 
in  small  tracts.  As  a  western  candidate  he  aroused  enthusiasm 
such  as  could  not  be  called  forth  by  White  who  was  accused  of 
being  the  candidate  of  the  nullifiers  and  the  cloak  for  Calhoun's 
desire  to  organize  the  south  on  a  sectional  basis.  Their  alleged 
purposes  seemed  the  logical  fulfillment  not  merely  of  the 
Sangamo  Journal's  sneers  at  Carpenter,  a  legislative  candidate, 
as  an  advocate  of  Negro  suffrage,  but  also  of  the  attacks  on 
Van  Buren  for  support  of  a  similar  measure  in  the  New  York 

6  Chicago  American,  September  17,  1836;  Sangamo  Journal,  October  8, 
15,  1836. 


24o  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

convention  and  on  Richard  M.  Johnson,  the  vice  presidential 
candidate,  as  an  "  amalgamator."  White  whiggism  in  Illinois 
wore  a  distinctly  southern  and  proslavery  cast.  At  this  stage 
indeed  the  Journal  distinctly  criticized  John  Quincy  Adams. 
It  is  therefore  not  surprising  to  find  Lincoln  and  Dan  Stone, 
the  two  signers  of  the  memorable  antislavery  protest  of  1837, 
participants  in  a  meeting  to  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  the 
battle  of  the  Thames.7 

The  democratic  attacks  on  Harrison  followed  the  same 
line  as  in  1840  —  criticism  of  his  military  career  and  services 
especially  as  compared  with  those  of  Johnson,  the  slayer  of 
Tecumseh,  of  his  civil  and  military  incompetence,  of  his  fed- 
eralism, of  his  vote  to  sell  men  out  to  service  in  satisfaction  of 
fines.  The  story  that  the  women  of  Chillicothe,  in  derogation 
of  his  military  qualities,  presented  him  with  a  petticoat  was 
dragged  out,  not  for  the  last  time.8 

The  democrats  in  Illinois  found  Van  Buren  a  rather  heavy 
load  to  carry.  It  is  significant  that  they  rarely  attempted  an 
appeal  to  the  personality  or  measures  of  the  man  himself. 
Instead  they  preached  assiduously  the  necessity  of  union  against 
the  measures  to  divide  the  party  and  by  that  division  secure  the 
triumph  of  the  "monster"  and  of  its  tool,  the  usurping  senate. 
Especially  before  the  Baltimore  convention,  which  the  opposi- 
tion declared  a  political  trick  to  foist  Van  Buren  on  the  country, 
they  emphasized  the  necessity  for  unity  in  the  party  and  for 
the  support  of  measures  rather  than  of  men.9  "  Resolved," 
ran  one  set  of  resolutions,  "That  the  cry  of  'no  party'  'pro- 
scription' 'Office  holders'  'Kitchen  Cabinet'  and  'Magician' 
are  terms  '  invented  by  knaves,  and  made  current  among 
fools.'"10 

''Chicago  American,  October  24,  1835,  September  10,  November  5,  1836; 
Sangamo  Journal,  April  16,  May  28,  July  9,  October  8,  22,  29,  1836;  Alton  Tele- 
graph, April  6,  1836;  Chicago  Democrat,  February  24,  April  20,  July  27,  1836; 
Illinois  State  Register,  June  3,  September  2,  1836;  Illinois  Advocate,  May  27, 
June  3,  1835. 

8  Chicago  Democrat,  July  27,  October  26,  1836. 

9  Illinois  Advocate,  May  6,  June  3,  1835. 

10  Meeting  at  Danville,  May  16,  in  Illinois  Advocate,  June  10,  1835. 


STRUGGLE   FOR   PARTY   REGULARITY  241 

In  general  the  democrats  were  glad  to  fall  back  on  Jackson 
and  use  his  mantle  to  cover  the  man  professing  to  be  his  suc- 
cessor. The  story  told  by  a  whig  editor  that  a  man  of  some 
intelligence  from  central  Illinois  had  been  convinced  by  demo- 
cratic asseverations  that  Jackson  had  reared  Van  Buren  from 
a  youth  in  Tennessee  to  succeed  him  is  doubtless  exaggerated, 
but  there  is  an  element  of  truth  in  the  situation  it  suggests.  At 
best  the  democrats  were  able  to  do  no  more  to  make  their 
candidate  lifelike  than  to  paint  his  countenance  into  the  portrait 
of  the  conventional  statesman  of  the  day. 

The  whigs,  however,  in  the  twelve  years  between  1832  and 
1844  when  they  had  Van  Buren  for  an  opponent,  sketched, 
deepened,  retouched,  and  fixed  a  portrait  that  was  as  vivid  as 
it  was  unflattering.  Under  their  brush  "little  Matty"  stood 
forth,  outwardly  a  foppish,  simpering,  snobbish  dandy,  the 
antithesis  of  everything  virile,  the  opponent  of  every  measure 
desired  by  the  west,  and  withal  a  tricky,  shrewd  political 
intriguer  who  had  gained  the  ear  of  the  great  Jackson  in  his 
decay  and  had  won  his  support  to  measures  alien  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  days  of  his  strength,  and  all  to  satisfy 
Machiavellian  ambitions  that  in  the  ordinary  course  of  events 
would  have  been  chimerical  and  preposterous.11 

In  this  portrait  there  was  most  obvious  justification  so  far 
as  Van  Buren's  attitude  toward  the  west  was  concerned.  He 
had  voted  against  western  internal  improvements,  against  the 
Cumberland  road,  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  grant,  and 
the  reduction  of  the  price  of  the  public  lands.  Here  the  con- 
trast of  his  record  with  Harrison's  was  marked.12  Against 
Van  Buren  there  were  brought  other  charges.  There  were 
stories  that  he  was  in  friendly  communication  with  the  pope, 
that  he  was  lending  the  public  money  to  speculators,  that  he 
had  opposed  the  War  of  1812,  had  opposed  white  manhood 
suffrage,  and  advocated  Negro  suffrage  in  the  New  York 

11  Sangamo  Journal,  January  12,  1832,  said  that  Jackson  was  formerly  for 
internal  improvements  and  tariff,  and  Van  Buren  had  won  him  from  them. 

12  Chicago  American,  November  5,  1836;  Sangamo  Journal,  October  15,  1836. 


242  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

convention.  He  was  twitted  with  his  Crawford  connections 
and  his  attacks  on  Jackson  in  i824.13 

The  whigs  attempted  to  make  Van  Buren's  personality  the 
issue  and  they  were  rather  inclined  to  avoid  any  other.  Of 
course,  they  ventured  occasional  attacks  on  the  bank  policy  of 
the  administration;  the  Alton  Telegraph  believed  that  the 
specie  circular  would  turn  the  hearts  of  Illinois  away  from 
Jackson.  But  usually  they  declined  meeting  the  democrats  on 
the  issues  of  Jackson's  administration.  The  senate  whig  reso- 
lutions of  1836  deal  with  a  theory  of  the  federalist  origin  of 
the  democratic  party  rather  than  with  real  political  issues.14 

One  exception  there  is.  The  whigs  stood  firmly  as  the 
opponents  of  the  convention,  the  caucus,  and  party  regularity. 
It  was  on  these  issues  that  John  Henry  forced  the  fighting  on 
the  house  resolutions.  At  this  point  a  plausible  attack  was 
made  on  the  convention  system  as  Van  Buren's  own  system  of 
fraud,  trickery,  and  deceit  by  which  the  despicable  Amos  Ken- 
dall had  brought  about  his  nomination.  The  whigs  insisted 
that  from  the  Baltimore  convention  down  to  the  lowest  county 
caucus  such  bodies  were  packed  with  officeholders  for  a  selfish 
and  corrupt  purpose.15  In  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  sup- 
porters of  White  and  the  whigs,  Van  Buren  in  1836  was 
successful  in  both  state  and  nation. 

The  final  flux  in  the  casting  of  the  democratic  party  was 
the  currency  and  banking  question  which  was  at  its  crisis  in  the 
years  1837—1840.  Under  the  older  system,  the  regulation 
of  the  note  issue  of  state  banks,  the  regulation  of  exchange,  the 
care  of  all  government  funds  were  intrusted  to  the  United 
States  Bank.  That  bank  Jackson  had  instinctively  distrusted 
as  the  self-appointed  regulator  of  the  currency  of  the  country, 

18  Chicago  American,  July  23,  30,  November  5,  1836;  Sangamo  Journal, 
June  4,  July  16,  30,  1836. 

14  Senate  Journal,  1835-1836,  2  session,  76.  Alton  Telegraph,  November  16, 
1836;  Illinois  Advocate,  May  6,  1835,  gives  address  of  democratic  convention 
rehearsing  and  indorsing  Jackson's  measures,  and  proving  Van  Buren  a  sup- 
porter of  them. 

18  Chicago  American,  June  20,  1835;  Sangamo  Journal,  June  13,  September 
19,  1835,  February  20,  1836. 


STRUGGLE    FOR   PARTY   REGULARITY  243 

a  private  institution  powerful  enough  to  dictate  to  the  govern- 
ment. In  the  name  of  the  people  he  had  made  war  on  the 
"monster,"  had  refused  it  a  recharter,  and  had  removed  the 
government  deposits  from  its  keeping.  In  spite  of  the  protest 
of  the  financial  interests  of  the  country,  exemplified  in  the 
censure  spread  on  the  journal  of  the  senate  in  1834  and 
expunged  in  1836  at  the  behest  of  Jackson  and  Benton,  Jackson 
had  continued  on  his  course  and,  abandoning  the  use  of  a 
national  fiscal  agent,  had  deposited  the  funds  of  the  govern- 
ment in  selected  state  banks  throughout  the  union.  Despite 
the  attacks  of  the  opposition  on  the  pet  banks,  as  unsafe  deposi- 
tories chosen  by  favor,  Jackson  pressed  on  in  his  course,  the 
democrats  loyally  following  after  him.  They  accused  the 
United  States  Bank  of  using  its  power  to  oppress  the  state 
banks  and  by  first  expanding  and  then  sharply  contracting  its 
credits  of  making  financial  stringencies  in  which  a  public 
clamoring  for  relief  might  be  led  to  demand  its  recharter.  In 
1835  the  democratic  convention  declared  that  two  years  experi- 
ence with  state  banks  showed  them  to  be  as  useful  to  the 
government  as  the  United  States  Bank  had  been.16 

The  situation,  however,  when  viewed  otherwise  than 
through  political  spectacles  was  far  from  encouraging.  By 
legislation  in  1834  against  small  bank  notes,  repeated  by 
proclamation  in  1835,  the  general  government  sought  to  force 
specie  into  circulation  as  the  customary  medium  of  small  trans- 
actions. Moreover,  by  1836,  the  issues  of  state  bank  notes,  no 
longer  controlled  by  the  United  States  Bank  and  encouraged 
by  the  deposits  of  government  funds,  were  reaching  startling 
figures  —  more  startling  still  was  their  apparent  tendency  not 
to  find  a  place  in  the  commercial  business  of  the  country,  but 
instead  to  be  used  for  purchases  of  the  public  lands.  Credit 
by  means  of  bank  notes  had  been  expanded  far  beyond  the 
needs  of  the  legitimate  transactions  of  business,  simply  because 
these  fruits  of  overexpansion  could  be  used  to  procure  public 
lands.  To  save  the  public  lands  of  the  nation  from  passing 

18  Illinois  Advocate,  May  6,  1835;  Chicago  American,  April  23,  1836. 


244  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

into  the  hands  of  speculators  Jackson  issued  the  much  criticized 
specie  circular,  forbidding  the  reception  of  anything  but  specie 
and  notes  of  specie  paying  banks,  immediately  in  the  case  of 
large  purchases  and  in  the  near  future  in  the  case  of  small  ones. 
Jackson's  last  official  act  in  1837  was  to  pocket  an  act  repealing 
the  circular,  which  the  whig  papers  duly  catalogued  as  one 
final  example  of  the  president's  willingness  to  subordinate 
to  his  whim  the  welfare  of  the  country.  As  the  panic  of 
1837  gathered  force  they  characterized  the  circular  as  the 
gambler's  throw  on  which  the  outgoing  administration 
depended  for  resources  to  keep  it  until  Van  Buren  could 
take  office.17 

The  panic  of  1837  dashed  to  fragments  the  system  of  state 
banks  which  had  replaced  the  United  States  Bank  and  which 
Jackson  had  sought  to  control  by  the  specie  circular.  The 
roots  of  that  panic  perhaps  lay  partly  in  the  accordance  by 
English  banks  and  exporters  of  excessive  credits  to  our  mer- 
chants; partly  no  doubt,  in  the  era  of  unrestricted  banking  that 
followed  the  war  on  the  United  States  Bank.  The  democrats 
insisted  on  the  first  reason,  and  asked  if  Jackson  was  respon- 
sible for  the  panic  in  Europe  as  well  as  for  that  in  the  United 
States.  But  the  whigs  laid  the  whole  at  the  door  of  Jackson's 
financial  policy.  In  his  message  addressed  to  the  special  session 
of  the  legislature  of  1837  Duncan  denounced  the  whole  panic 
as  due  to  the  destruction  of  the  United  States  Bank,  the  creation 
of  state  banks,  and  the  attempt  of  the  executive  to  bolster  up 
his  mistake  by  a  cry  for  an  exclusively  specie  currency.  Duncan 
only  gave  official  expression  to  what  had  filled  the  whig  papers 
for  months;  the  whigs  gleefully  professed  their  belief  that 
Van  Buren's  party  was  ruined  never  to  rise  again.18 

The  Illinois  State  Register  loyally  stood  to  its  guns,  but 
as  the  whigs  sarcastically  pointed  out  it  was  for  some  time  at  a 
loss  as  to  what  it  should  profess  as  the  true  democratic  creed. 
In  June  it  came  forth  with  a  declaration  that  the  true  remedy 

"Alton  Telegraph,  March  22,  April  26,  1837. 

18  Senate  Journal,  1837,  special  session,  7;  Illinois  State  Register,  July  15, 
1837;  Sanaamo  Journal,  June  3,  1837. 


STRUGGLE    FOR    PARTY    REGULARITY  245 

was  a  control  by  the  government  of  its  funds  through  its  own 
officers  and  a  divorce  from  all  banks,  and  to  this  issue  it  clung 
and  tried  to  hold  the  whigs.  The  Sangamo  Journal  on  the  con- 
trary amused  itself  by  listing  the  democratic  papers  that 
disclaimed  any  intention  of  establishing  an  exclusively  metallic 
currency  and  rather  sought  to  force  that  issue.  It  argued  that 
the  establishment  of  the  Madisonian  at  Washington  under 
William  Allen's  editorship  implied  Van  Buren's  desire  for  sup- 
port in  abandoning  the  kitchen  cabinet,  the  locofocos,  and  the 
Jackson  financial  policy.19 

If  the  democratic  doctrine  was  fixed,  its  acceptance  by  con- 
gress was  less  certain.  The  Journal  rejoiced  and  the  Register 
raged  over  the  election  of  Allen  as  public  printer  in  preference 
to  Francis  P.  Blair  of  the  Globe.  When  it  became  apparent 
even  to  the  Register  that  Casey,  May,  and  Snyder,  the  Illinois 
representatives,  had  all  voted  for  Allen,  it  could  no  longer 
apologize  for  their  vote  to  table  the  subtreasury  bill  on  the 
ground  that  they  were  waiting  to  know  the  will  of  their  con- 
stituents. As  early  as  October  6,  it  had  had  its  doubts  of  May 
and  Snyder;  and  now  it  denounced  all  three  on  the  ground  that 
their  delay  to  seek  the  will  of  their  constituents  was  all  a  fraud ; 
and  it  branded  them  as  members  of  the  little  knot  of  twelve 
Jackson  men  who  had  betrayed  the  cause  of  democracy  at  the 
very  moment  when  the  issue  was  self-government  or  govern- 
ment by  banks.20 

Judging  by  the  attitude  of  its  representatives  in  congress 
Illinois  democracy  was  divided  on  the  financial  measures. 
Richard  M.  Young  and  John  M.  Robinson,  the  senators,  who 
had  both  been  of  suspected  orthodoxy  in  the  past,  were  staunch 

10  Illinois  State  Register,  May  20,  June  2,  10,  August  25,  September  i,  1837; 
it  claimed  in  the  last  named  issue  that  the  Jacksonville  Patriot,  Sangamo  Journal, 
and  Alton  Telegraph  were  opposing  the  divorce.  Sangamo  Journal,  July  29, 
August  19,  1837;  the  latter  issue  enumerated  the  Globe,  Alton  Spectator,  Quincy 
Argus,  Jacksonville  News,  Danville  Enquirer,  and  Chicago  Democrat. 

20  Illinois  State  Register,  September  22,  October  27,  November  4,  10,  17, 
1837;  Sangamo  Journal,  September  25,  October  7,  1837;  Congressional  Globe, 
25  congress,  i  session,  73,  96,  103,  117.  For  the  resolution  that  it  was  inexpe- 
dient to  charter  a  United  States  Bank,  May  voted  in  the  negative;  Robinson  and 
Young  both  voted  for  the  subtreasury. 


246  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

supporters  of  the  administration's  policy;  Zadoc  Casey  and 
Adam  W.  Snyder  though  supposedly  orthodox  were  undecided; 
and  William  L.  May,  hitherto  the  democratic,  even  the  Van 
Buren  leader  in  the  state,  was  openly  opposed  to  the  whole 
fiscal  program.  The  newspapers  of  Illinois,  however,  were 
generally  locofoco,  as  the  whigs  would  have  said,  and  sup- 
ported the  subtreasury;  and  public  meetings,  probably  under 
the  spur  of  the  party  management,  were  beginning  to  in- 
dorse it.21 

As  an  interlude  in  the  struggle  for  party  regularity  on  the 
fiscal  issue  came  an  attempt  to  use  the  issue  to  drive  May  out 
of  the  party.  May  and  Forquer,  whose  janglings  and  jeal- 
ousies had  repeatedly  been  satirized  by  the  Sangamo  Journal, 
had  finally  broken  company  late  in  1836.  Forquer,  so  the 
Journal  declared,  deserted  the  Van  Buren  candidates,  May, 
McRoberts,  and  Ewing,  and  threw  his  support  to  Richard  M. 
Young,  whose  past  was  strongly  tinged  to  say  the  least  with 
whiggism  and  who  had  courted  and  obtained  whig  support 
by  professing  himself  to  be  a  Jackson  man  for  prudential  rea- 
sons only.  Young  on  his  part  accused  May  of  promising  sup- 
port for  congress  to  both  George  W.  P.  Maxwell  and  Douglas 
in  return  for  aid  in  sending  him  to  the  senate.  As  early  as 
April,  1 837,  the  Journal  predicted  that  May  would  be  read  out 
of  the  party  by  the  Springfield  junto.  In  July  the  Illinois  Re- 
publican was  attacking  May  for  his  votes  in  the  last  session  on 
the  distribution  of  the  surplus  and  the  repeal  of  the  specie  circu- 
lar. The  Journal  believed  that  Forquer  was  planning  the  ruin 
of  Casey  and  Reynolds  as  well  as  of  May.22 

Others  than  Forquer,  however,  were  destined  to  reap  the 
reward  of  the  plot,  if  plot  there  was.  At  the  time  when  his 
control  of  the  party  was  apparently  the  strongest,  he  disap- 
peared from  Illinois  politics;  in  another  year  he  died  of 
consumption.  Douglas  and  Young,  however,  continued  their 

21  Illinois  State  Register,  October  20,  November  10,  December  9,  1837. 

22  Sangamo   Journal,   November    5,    19,   December    17,    24,    1836,    April   22, 
May  27,  July  8,  15,  29,  August  5,  November   5,   1837;   Illinois  State  Register, 
August  4,  1837;  Chicago  Democrat,  August  16,  1837. 


STRUGGLE   FOR   PARTY   REGULARITY  247 

war  upon  May.  Douglas  devoted  himself  to  drumming  up 
delegates  to  a  convention  at  Peoria  to  nominate  himself  for 
May's  place;  and  the  Chicago  Democrat,  scenting  a  plot  for 
Douglas'  personal  aggrandizement,  began  to  shift  its  ground 
a  little.  The  Journal  praised  May's  course  in  congress  but 
advised  him  not  to  be  a  candidate  again,  thus  leaving  the  field 
clear  for  a  whig  to  beat  the  nominee  of  the  Peoria  convention 
on  the  issue  of  radicalism  and  conservatism.23 

The  factional  disorder  in  the  democratic  party  for  the 
moment  offered  a  magnificent  chance  for  the  whigs  to  disrupt 
it.  May  drew  up  a  powerful  defense  of  his  course  in  congress, 
pronouncing  that  against  the  subtreasury  initiated  three  years 
before  by  an  obscure  congressman  the  authority  of  the  sages  of 
the  past  was  for  the  use  of  banks  as  depositories  for  the  gov- 
ernment funds.  He  denounced  the  measures  of  the  specie 
circular  as  calculated  to  retard  the  growth  of  the  west  and  as 
having  been  three  times  rejected  by  congress.  While  justifying 
the  old  war  on  the  bank  because  of  its  known  interference  in 
politics,  he  admitted  that  Jackson's  party  had  not  given  the 
country  a  currency  as  good  as  that  of  the  old  bank.  He 
defended  his  vote  for  Allen  on  the  old  ground  of  his  Jackson- 
ism.  May  thus  took  a  strong  position  on  which  an  attack 
might  once  again  split  the  party.  The  whigs  were  eager  to 
complete  the  work.  The  Journal  praised  all  three  of  the 
representatives  for  their  stand  against  locofocoism.  A.  P. 
Field  begged  the  whigs  to  support  Snyder  if  the  democrats 
tried  to  beat  him  with  a  convention  nominee.  The  democrats 
had  the  difficult  task  of  attacking  May  for  his  financial  votes 
without  driving  Snyder  and  Casey  and  their  following  out  of 
the  party  with  him.  The  whigs  prophesied  that  the  locofoco 
anti-bank  doctrines  would  disgust  true  Jackson  men.  Kinney 
and  Reynolds  were  believed  to  be  unorthodox  on  the  bank 
and  subtreasury.  It  might  well  be  regarded  as  doubtful  if 
the  "  conservatives,"  like  May,  might  not  succeed  in  establish- 

23  Sangamo   Journal,   October    14,    December   2,    1837;    Chicago    Democrat, 
August  16,  1837. 


248  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

ing  themselves  as  a  party  in  Illinois  even  if  they  did  not  wrest 
from  their  opponents  control  of  the  older  organization.24 

Unfortunately  for  the  conservatives  the  locofocos  con- 
trolled all  the  orthodox  democratic  newspapers  in  Illinois 
except  May's  Backwoodsman  and  the  Shawneetown  Voice  and 
Journal.  Thus  they  were  handicapped  by  having  their  day  in 
court  in  the  columns  of  the  whig  papers.  The  radical  demo- 
crats with  an  instinctive  political  wisdom  which  they  frequently 
displayed  in  Illinois  politics  took  issue  frankly  on  the  subtreas- 
ury,  despite  the  whig  cry  of  "purse  and  sword,"  and  their 
accusation  that  the  administration's  doctrine  was  to  be  forced 
on  Illinois  by  the  influence  of  officeholders.  The  Register  on 
the  other  hand  discreetly  indorsed  the  repeal  of  the  specie  cir- 
cular on  the  ground  that  the  measure  had  after  all  fulfilled  its 
usefulness  and  that  it  was  now  a  discrimination  in  favor  of 
the  east  against  the  west.  Slowly  the  party  in  Illinois  was 
forced  into  line.  Snyder  between  March  and  June  of  1838 
turned  to  support  the  subtreasury,  discreetly  declining  a  reelec- 
tion. Some  of  the  whigs  even  advocated  supporting  him  for 
governor  in  preference  to  Edwards,  if  he  cared  to  run.25 

It  was  harder  for  the  democrats  to  deal  with  Casey  than 
with  Snyder.  June  I,  1838,  the  Register  attempted  an  apology 
for  Casey's  irregular  course  on  the  old  ground  of  awaiting 
instructions.  It  professed  that  it  had  suggested  a  convention 
in  his  district  only  for  fear  that  a  Van  Buren  man  would  run 
against  him  and  thereby  elect  a  whig.  It  admitted  the  validity 
of  Casey's  reason  for  refusing  to  submit  to  a  convention  — 
that  his  candidacy  was  announced  before  a  convention  had  been 
projected.  It  came  to  the  conclusion,  humiliating  for  the  party 
of  conventions,  that  conventions  were  new  things  in  Illinois, 
that  one  might  injure  the  party,  and  that,  since  Casey  had 
the  administration's  indorsement,  perhaps  a  convention  would 

2*Sanaamo  Journal,  .November  18,  December  2,  1837,  January  20,  1838; 
Alton  Telegraph,  December  20,  1837. 

25  Sang  am  o  Journal,  April  21,  May  19,  June  30,  July  14,  20;  Congressional 
Globe,  25  congress,  2  session,  213;  Illinois  Slate  Register,  February  9,  1838, 
June  i,  29,  1838. 


STRUGGLE    FOR   PARTY   REGULARITY  249 

be  inexpedient  after  all.26  The  secret  was  that  Casey's  strength 
in  his  district  was  so  great  that  neither  McRoberts  nor  Breese 
dared  to  run  against  him. 

After  Casey's  vote  against  the  subtreasury  in  1838,  how- 
ever, the  Register  was  forced  to  denounce  him  for  his  duplicity 
in  deceiving  the  party  on  his  position,  and  in  selling  himself 
to  the  bank.  It  attempted  in  vain  to  induce  McRoberts  to  run 
against  him  and  on  Casey's  reelection  it  had  to  admit  him  as 
a  democrat,  sound  on  all  points  except  the  subtreasury  and 
entitled  to  credit  for  having  at  last  deserted  the  Madisonian.2"* 

It  was  only,  however,  by  means  of  extraordinary  personal 
popularity  such  as  Casey's  that  one  could  defy  the  mandate  of 
the  party.  The  use  of  the  convention  as  a  means  of  enforcing 
regularity  and  submission  to  the  will  of  the  party  had  really 
been  eminently  successful  in  its  purpose,  even  though  it  meant 
submission  to  the  will  of  the  master  manipulators  like  Douglas. 
Its  value  became  strikingly  apparent  in  the  campaign  for  the 
governorship  in  1838.  Late  in  1837  a  party  convention  had 
nominated  for  governor  J.  W.  Stephenson,  and  for  lieutenant 
governor,  J.  S.  Hacker.  The  whigs  claimed  that  Stephenson 
had  been  nominated  only  because  Reynolds,  Kinney,  Casey, 
and  Snyder,  the  best  men  of  the  party,  were  all  under  suspicion 
of  heterodoxy.  The  choice  could  not  have  been  more  unfortu- 
nate. "Stephenson  is  a  defaulter  to  the  amount  of  40,000," 
wrote  Field  to  Eddy.  "  Say  nothing  about  it  to  nobody.  We 
will  modestly  set  on  foot  an  inquiry  by  our  papers.  They 
will  of  course  deny  it  &  then  May  has  the  Documents  to  prove 
the  facts."  In  fact,  May's  Backwoodsman  was  the  first  to 
open  fire,  whig  papers  at  first  affecting  to  believe  that  the  story 
was  a  democratic  trick.  The  democratic  newspapers  were  soon 
divided  into  contending  camps,  mainly  on  the  question  whether 
Stephenson's  alleged  default  was  not  a  load  too  heavy  for  his 
party  to  carry.  The  Register,  the  Chicago,  the  Galena,  and 
Ottawa  Democrats,  and  the  Shawneetown  Voice  Jtood  by  him. 

26  Illinois  State  Register,  June  i,  1838. 

27  Ibid.,  July  13,  27,  August  3,  31,  1838. 


250  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

The  Belleville  News,  Quincy  Argus,  Alton  Spectator,  and  Illi- 
nois Standard  approved  him,  while  the  Illinois  Republican 
remained  on  the  fence.  According  to  the  Journal,  however,  a 
caucus  at  Springfield  decided  that  he  must  be  dropped  as  too 
heavy  a  load  for  Douglas  to  carry  in  the  congressional  race.-8 
A  new  convention  assembled  and  chose  Thomas  Carlin  of 
Quincy  as  the  candidate  for  governor.  He  was  a  man  of 
honesty,  but  ignorant,  and  his  choice  seemed  to  point  to  a 
compromise  in  the  ranks  of  the  party.  He  was  probably  ortho- 
dox on  the  bank  question,  but  he  had  been  friendly  to  May 
after  the  attack  on  him  had  begun;  and  he  was  supported  by 
the  Backwoodsman.-9  His  opponent  in  the  convention  was 
Breese,  who  apparently  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  faction 
attacking  May.30  The  Belleville  group,  Reynolds,  Gustave 
Koerner,  W.  C.  Kinney,  and  Shields  united  in  supporting 
Snyder.  It  was  claimed  that  Carlin's  victory  was  due  to  a 
bargain  with  McRoberts,  and  that  the  representation  at  the 
convention  was  small  —  three  counties  in  the  north,  five  in 
the  center,  nine  in  the  south,  and  two  in  the  east.31  The  nomi- 
nation, however,  was  carried  successfully  into  an  election. 
The  convention  system  of  party  organization,  though  sorely 
tried,  had  produced  a  degree  of  unity  in  the  party  that  could 
hardly  have  been  attained  otherwise.  It  is  little  wonder  that 
clever  whig  politicians  like  Lincoln,  who  were  not  too  much 
wedded  to  the  traditions  of  the  past,  came  to  look  on  the 
system  with  envy  and  to  press  its  adoption  in  their  own  ranks. 

28  Sangamo  Journal,  January  20,  22,  March  3,  May  12,  1838 ;  Illinois  State 
Register,  May  n,  1838,  stated  that  Hacker  resigned.     Field  to  Eddy,  January 
22,  1838,  in  Eddy  manuscripts. 

29  Sangamo  Journal,  May  12,  July  28,  1838. 

30  Field  to  Eddy,  January  22,  1838,  in  Eddy  manuscripts;    he  was  said  to  be 
back  of  the  movement  to  run  against  Snyder. 

31  Illinois  Slate  Register,  June  8,  1838;  Sangamo  Journal,  June  16,  1838. 


XIII.     THE  WHIG  AND  DEMOCRATIC  PARTIES; 
THE   CONVENTION    SYSTEM 

IN  THE  decade  between  1830  and  1840  the  democratic 
party  developed  the  idea  of  party  regularity  and  devised 
the  convention  as  a  means  of  attaining  it.  To  comprehend 
the  character  of  this  innovation  one  must  first  contrast  it  with 
the  system  it  displaced.  At  the  time  of  the  admission  of  Illi- 
nois to  the  union  the  complete  triumph  of  the  republican  party 
had  for  the  time  put  an  end  to  bipartisan  politics;  the  political 
game  turned  around  the  ambitions  of  political  leaders,  the 
rivalries  of  political  cliques,  and  the  adaptation  of  political 
measures  to  the  supposed  interests  of  various  sections  of  the 
nation.  With  the  rise  of  Andrew  Jackson,  there  came  out 
of  the  confusion  a  party  which  obligated  its  members  to 
loyalty  to  Jackson,  the  vindicator  of  the  popular  will.  But 
as  the  "Old  Hero"  took  his  self-willed  course  in  politics 
and  expected  those  who  professed  to  be  his  friends  to  supr 
port  him  in  one  measure  after  another,  his  partisans  soon 
came  to  amplify  the  obligations  of  personal  loyalty  until  it 
included  support  of  Jackson's  measures  as  well;  and  this  new 
test  they  added  as  a  sequel  to  the  old  shibboleth  of  personal 
allegiance. 

So  long  as  the  political  methods  of  the  older  day  remained 
it  was  difficult  to  enforce  any  such  test.  The  idea  that  one 
man  should  stand  forth  as  a  party  candidate  for  an  office 
was  as  unfamiliar  to  the  politicians  of  the  twenties  as  was  the 
existence  of  national  parties  themselves.  It  often  happened 
that  a  man  was  persuaded  not  to  run  for  an  office  lest  he  jeop- 
ardize the  chances  of  a  friend  who  was  also  a  candidate;  but 
except  where  personal  or  factional  considerations  intervened, 
men  felt  free  to  present  themselves  as  candidates  for  office  as 

251 


252  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

they  would.  Sometimes  various  polite  devices  intervened  to 
bring  the  candidate  and  the  people  together.  It  often  hap- 
pened that  a  few  voters,  actuated  by  friendship,  or  by  unwill- 
ingness to  offend  a  rich  man  or  a  notorious  bully,  signed  a 
newspaper  notice  or  attended  a  public  meeting  summoning  a 
coy  politician  to  permit  the  use  of  his  name.1  The  politicians 
of  the  day  were  expert  in  the  arts  of  aiding  a  candidacy  by 
putting  forward  or  withholding  other  candidates  and  by  form- 
ing elaborate  combinations  to  sap  the  strength  of  a  dangerous 
rival.  Under  such  a  system  it  was  so  difficult  for  the  people 
to  express  clearly  by  their  votes  support  or  disapproval  of  the 
acts  or  political  opinions  of  candidates  that  a  bare  profession 
of  Jacksonism  carried  Duncan  through  election  after  election, 
whether  in  congress  the  Jackson  measures  enjoyed  his  sup- 
port or  not. 

To  combat  such  situations,  the  ideas  of  party  regularity 
and  of  the  use  of  the  convention  were  worked  out  in  the 
democratic  party.  As  the  theory  was  stated  after  1835  in  set 
after  set  of  resolutions,  politics  in  the  United  States  was 
based  on  differences  of  principle  as  to  government.  The  tri- 
umph of  principles,  rather  than  the  triumph  of  any  particular 
leader,  was  the  end  to  be  sought.  "Without  a  frequent 
interchange  of  political  sentiment,  expressed  by  the  people, 
and  repeated  by  their  delegates,  properly  authorized,  the 
democracy  cannot  insure  that  success  in  their  elections, 
which  the  purity  and  integrity  of  their  principles,  entitle  them 
to  claim." 2  The  democrats  saw  that  victory  for  their 
principles  could  be  won  only  by  centering  the  vote  of  the 
party  on  one  man  pledged  to  their  support  and  by  frowning 
on  the  candidacy  of  any  rivals,  as  likely  to  divide  the  vote 
of  the  party  and  allow  a  minority  in  opposition  united  on 
one  candidate  to  win.  The  means  to  this  end  was  the  con- 
vention; whether  district,  county,  state,  or  national,  it  could 
state  the  principles  of  the  party,  choose  a  candidate  to  exem- 

1  Illinois    Advocate,    November    u,    1835;    Chicago    Democrat,    February 
25,  1834. 

2  Illinois  Advocate,  December  17,  1835. 


WHIG  AND   DEMOCRATIC   PARTIES   253 

plify  them,  and  call  upon  the  rank  and  file  of  the  party  to 
support  him  loyally.3 

Its  originators  adduced  many  a  truth  in  favor  of  the  system. 
Not  only  did  it  tend  to  the  triumph  of  just  principles  of  gov- 
ernment, but  it  was  essentially  democratic.  Theoretically  at 
least,  it  rested  on  a  series  of  representations  of  the  people, 
from  the  primary  meeting  in  the  district  up  to  the  national  con- 
vention. Applied  to  national  nominations,  the  convention  was 
insurance  against  choice  by  a  caucus  or  by  the  house  voting  by 
states  —  the  dilemma  of  the  statesman  of  1824—1825. 
Further,  since  the  representative  assemblages  were  made  up  of 
incorruptible  patriots,  wealth  and  influence  could  have  no  part 
in  their  actions  as  they  could  under  the  old  system  of  private 
nominations.4  Under  the  convention  system,  in  theory  at 
least,  the  nomination  sought  the  patriot  purest  in  political  life 
and  most  orthodox  in  principle. 

Of  course  the  practice  in  many  cases  scarcely  corresponded 
to  the  theory.  In  the  case  of  the  Baltimore  convention  that 
nominated  Van  Buren  for  the  presidency,  the  intention  obvi- 
ously was  to  rally  the  whole  strength  of  the  party  to  a  man 
who  unquestionably  was  not  the  choice  of  a  large  part  of  it. 
In  that  convention  the  vote  of  Illinois  and  Kentucky  was  cast 
by  a  man  who  had  no  authorization  from  the  party  in  either 
state  to  represent  it.  If  the  convention  lessened  the  influence 
of  the  man  of  wealth,  it  increased  the  influence  of  the  man 
clever  in  political  manipulation.  Under  the  convention  system 
poor  young  men  who  were  at  the  same  time  shrewd  politicians 
frequently  rose  to  power.  The  political  career  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  who  boasted  that  he  had  introduced  the  convention 
system  in  Illinois  was  a  typical  example  of  such  political  shrewd- 
ness.5 Yet  even  from  such  a  result  democracy  may  have  been 
the  gainer. 

The  adoption  of  the  convention  system  in  Illinois  was  not 

3  Illinois  Advocate,  April  15,  22,  June  3,  November  18,  December  17,  1835; 
Chicago  Democrat,  May  27,  1835. 

4  Illinois  Advocate,  September  2,  1835;  Chicago  Democrat,  July  15,  1835. 

5  Sangamo  Journal,  May  16,  June  13,  July  n,  1835,  May  7,  1836. 


254  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  work  of  a  day  even  in  the  democratic  party.  Thus  in  1832 
the  cry  that  Johnson's  claims  to  the  vice  presidency  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  national  convention  was  met  by  the  nomination 
of  electors  pledged  to  Jackson  and  Johnson.  In  1835  the 
alleged  lack  of  time  was  set  forth  as  a  reason  why  Illinois 
should  content  itself  with  county  meetings  indorsing  in  advance 
the  work  to  be  done  by  the  Baltimore  convention.  Neverthe- 
less a  democratic  state  convention  was  held  which  nominated 
delegates  instructed  for  Van  Buren  and  Johnson,  and  a  long 
series  of  county  meetings  was  induced  to  indorse  the  work  of 
the  convention. 

Opposition  was  naturally  aroused.  A  legislative  nominat- 
ing convention,  held  at  Ottawa  in  the  northern  district  in  1834, 
drew  forth  protests  against  it  as  a  snap  convention  and  caused 
the  nomination  of  rival  candidates.  In  the  fall  of  1835  Eben- 
ezer  Peck's  proposal  to  nominate  state  officers  in  a  convention 
called  to  nominate  electors  and  his  advocacy  of  extending 
throughout  the  state  "  the  wholesome  system  of  conventions  " 
aroused  protests.  W.  J.  Gatewood  strenuously  opposed  the 
system.  The  Greene  county  convention  in  1836  resolved  to  let 
all  who  wished  run  for  county  offices.  Southern  Illinois  was 
slow  to  adopt  the  idea  of  the  convention  as  an  enforcer  of 
party  regularity.6 

The  whigs  at  first  criticized  the  convention  system  for  what 
often  enough  it  undoubtedly  was,  a  devise  of  political  manipu- 
lators to  kill  off  candidates  opposed  to  them.  John  Henry 
in  the  legislative  session  of  1835—1836  offered  resolutions 
which  declared  that  the  application  of  the  convention  system  to 
state  and  county  offices  was  anti-republican.  He  drew  an 
illuminating  contrast  between  the  new  conventions,  managed 
to  whip  the  party  into  line  in  the  interest  of  such  cliques  as  the 
Albany  regency,  and  the  older  public  nomination  meetings.7 

8 Sangamo  Journal,  March  i,  April  5,  1832,  April  18,  May  2,  1835,  February 
6,  13,  March  26,  1836;  Illinois  Advocate,  March  9,  23,  1832,  April  i,  15,  22, 
May  6,  1835;  Chicago  Democrat,  March  4,  18,  21,  May  21,  28,  June  25,  1834. 

7  House  Journal,  1835-1836,  2  session,  27;  Sangamo  Journal,  January 
30,  1836. 


WHIG   AND    DEMOCRATIC   PARTIES  255 

The  principle  of  exclusion  and  regularity  was  the  crux  of  the 
distinction  between  the  older  and  newer  system. 

Some  of  the  proceedings  of  early  conventions  afforded  the 
whigs  legitimate  material  for  their  satire.  The  Chicago 
Democrat  one  year  argued  for  conventions,  and  the  next,  dis- 
gruntled at  the  local  nominee  for  the  legislature,  refused  to 
be  bound  by  a  convention  nomination  on  the  ground  that  as 
the  convention  had  not  harmonized  public  sentiment,  its  deci- 
sion was  not  binding  on  the  party.  William  L.  May  was 
nominated  for  congress  in  1836  by  a  state  convention  at  Peoria, 
consisting,  as  the  Sangamo  Journal  averred,  of  twelve  persons 
representing  five  out  of  twenty-three  counties,  chosen  in  pri- 
mary meetings  aggregating  some  twenty  persons.  Next  year, 
with  Douglas  in  control,  conditions  were  changed;  and  a  con- 
vention dominated  by  an  over-representation,  so  it  was  said, 
of  Sangamon  and  Morgan  delegates  nominated  Douglas  at 
Peoria.  May  protested  that  where  a  plurality  of  popular  votes 
would  elect,  the  action  of  a  convention  was  not  binding.  The 
Sangamo  Journal  believed  the  affair  had  made  the  Military 
Tract  ready  to  give  up  conventions  and  declared  they  were  in 
such  bad  odor  that  Casey  and  Ewing  would  not  consent  to  be 
nominated  by  them.8 

Still  the  convention  idea  spread  and  with  it  went  the  organ- 
ization of  counties  and  districts  by  committees  to  call  meetings 
and  to  correspond.9  The  system  was  applied  to  nominations 
in  both  county  and  state.  Conventions  of  all  grades  adopted 
resolutions  and  addresses  defining  the  path  of  the  party.  With 
all  its  faults,  with  all  its  abuses,  the  convention  did  its  work 
well  for  the  democratic  party.  It  brought  unity;  it  ended  the 
possibility  of  such  campaigns  as  Duncan's  in  1834;  and  at 
least  twice,  in  1838  and  1842,  it  enabled  the  party  to  perform 

8  Sangamo  Journal,  April  30,  May  14,  July  2,  1836,  September  2,  October 
21,   November   25,    December    9,    1837,    January    13,    August   4,    1838;    Chicago 
American,  July  4,  August  i,  1835,  July  23,   30,  1836;   Chicago  Democrat,  July 
8,  1835,  July  20,  1836. 

9  Illinois  Advocate,  June  3,  September  16,  30,   December  2,   1835;   Chicago 
Democrat,  June   10,    1835,  February  24,   1836;   Illinois  State  Register,  July  22, 
1837,  May  18,  1838. 


256  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  delicate  maneuver  of  replacing  one  candidate  with  another 
under  the  enemies'  fire  without  throwing  the  ranks  into  con- 
fusion. 

The  whigs  made  no  use  of  the  convention  corresponding 
to  that  of  their  opponents.  They  scarcely  used  it  except  for 
such  matters  as  the  nomination  of  electors.  They  drew  their 
skirts  carefully  aside  from  the  defilement  of  anything  like 
caucus  dictation.  They  came  in  time  to  use  conventions  for 
congressional  and  legislative  nominations,  but  they  shrank 
from  a  broader  application  of  the  system.  There  was  always 
trepidation  in  the  ranks  when  a  convention  seemed  to  be  neces- 
sary to  decide  between  state  candidates  and  a  feeling  of  relief 
when  by  the  adjuration  of  newspapers  and  other  persuaders,  all 
but  one  withdrew,  doubtless  often  leaving  as  much  ill-feeling 
as  a  hard-fought  convention  battle  would  have  left.10 

Because  the  convention  system  proved  satisfactory  to  the 
democratic  party  it  does  not  follow  that  the  whigs  could  have 
used  it  with  equal  success.  The  difference  between  whig  and 
democrat  was  more  than  a  mere  difference  in  name  and  more 
than  a  difference  of  opinion  on  important  questions  of  public 
policy.  The  difference  was  fundamental,  it  came  from  the 
inmost  nature  and  marked  diametrically  opposite  viewpoints. 
Barring  accident  and  self-seeking  a  whig  was  a  whig  and  a 
democrat  a  democrat  because  he  had  a  certain  well-defined 
attitude  toward  the  world  outside  himself. 

"  I  have  been  seeking  and  obtaining  information  upon  the 
subject  of  your  Bank  Directory  at  this  place,"  wrote  William 
Thomas  from  Jacksonville  to  Henry  Eddy  in  I838,11  "we 
can  furnish  as  good  a  Directory  as  can  be  found  in  Illinois 
but  we  cannot  divide  the  power  between  parties  as  is  desirable, 
because  all  of  our  solvent  business  men  in  Town  are  opposed 

10  Sangamo  Journal,  September  i,  22,  29,  1832,  February  20,  1836,  Decem- 
ber 23,  1837;  Alton  Telegraph,  June  28,  July  5,  1837,  March  28,  1838;  Chicago 
American,  July  26,  31,  August  2,  22,  1839;  Peoria  Register,  December  9,  1837. 

"William  Thomas  to  Eddy,  January  4,  1838,  in  Eddy  manuscripts;  see 
also  Chicago  Democrat,  August  16,  1837.  I*  remarked  that  of  the  emigration 
to  northern  Illinois  the  laborers  were  democrats  and  the  speculators  and  claim 
jumpers  whigs. 


WHIG  AND   DEMOCRATIC   PARTIES   257 

to  the  Administration.  We  have  but  two  solvent  merchants 
in  Town  as  exceptions;  they  are  doing  small  business."  Gen- 
erally speaking  the  foregoing  passage  may  serve  as  a  guide  in 
a  rough  and  ready  division  of  political  Illinois  between  the 
whigs  and  the  democrats.  The  development  of  the  actual 
alignment  of  individual  politicians,  the  shifting  and  alteration 
of  personal  factions  cannot  so  be  generalized.  The  important 
fact  to  keep  in  mind  is  that  in  the  decade  between  1830  and 
1840  two  distinct  groups  of  ideas  developed  into  opposing 
political  platforms  and  philosophies;  and  the  passage  quoted  at 
the  head  of  this  paragraph  may  serve  as  a  useful  criterion  to 
determine  the  location  of  the  line  of  demarcation.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  both  these  schools  of  political  thought  devel- 
oped gradually  and  that  while  the  turn  and  emphasis  given  their 
various  doctrines  were  governed  by  local  conditions  in  Illinois, 
the  doctrines  themselves  came  from  without,  growing  in  impor- 
tance as  they  found  a  response  in  the  minds  of  the  natives. 

Of  these,  the  whig  political  philosophy  is  hardest  to  derive 
from  the  utterances  of  its  Illinois  exponents.  Unlike  their 
democratic  opponents,  they  were  not  given  to  stating  broad 
principles.  In  their  case  it  is  necessary  to  presuppose  a  rarely 
expressed  affection  and  prejudice  for  the  stability  and  perma- 
nence of  the  political  institutions  as  they  supposedly  had  existed 
and  operated  in  the  days  of  the  fathers.  Looking  toward  the 
past  as  they  did,  they  were  sentimentalists  rather  than  idealists; 
their  first  great  political  victory  was  won  on  a  sentimental 
appeal  for  a  return  to  the  measures  and  the  political  purity  of 
the  past  and  for  the  election  of  a  man  who  seemed  one  of  the 
last  links  to  the  days  of  the  Revolutionary  heroes. 

The  presence  of  this  atmosphere  of  sentiment  and  conser- 
vatism would  imply  to  the  European  student  of  politics  a 
bourgeois  party  constituency.  Paradoxical  as  the  idea  may 
seem,  the  business  man,  accustomed  to  do  his  work  through 
a  complex  of  human  relationships  is,  however  cynical,  a  good 
deal  of  a  sentimentalist.  Certainly  the  whig  party  in  its  specific 
measures  appeared  as  a  business  man's  party.  In  a  fit  of  frank 


258  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

analysis  of  political  parties  in  Illinois  in  1839,  the  Sangamo 
Journal,1-  a  whig  organ,  averred  that  among  the  whigs  were 
to  be  found  a  "large  proportion  of  the  mercantile  class  — 
the  shifting,  bustling,  speculating  class  whose  wealth  and  for- 
tunes enable  them  to  court  pleasure  or  enjoyment,  or  repose." 
It  admitted  that  this  class,  comprising  as  it  did  bank  directors 
and  borrowers  at  banks,  would  find  a  common  interest  in 
the  welfare  of  banking  institutions.  In  its  measures  —  banks, 
protection,  internal  improvements  —  the  whig  party  was  the 
party  of  the  business  classes  and  of  those  within  their  sphere 
of  influence.13 

Since  the  storm  of  innovation  that  was  breaking  on  the 
country  was  forced  on  congress  by  the  overpowering  influence 
of  the  executive  supported  by  a  strongly  organized  party 
machine,  the  principles  of  the  whigs  naturally  opposed  the  use 
of  executive  power  and  patronage  for  party  purposes  and  sus- 
tained the  legislature  in  its  old  standing  and  power  against  the 
assaults  of  the  executive  branch.  It  was  for  this  reason  that 
the  whigs  fought  desperately  the  expunging  resolution  as  cal- 
culated to  destroy  the  independence  of  the  senate.  "  Destroy 
public  confidence  in  the  Senate,"  wrote  Governor  Duncan  in 
transmitting  to  the  Illinois  senators  their  legislative  instruc- 
tions to  vote  for  the  expunging  resolution,  "let  the  Legisla- 
ture rebuke  them  for  warning  the  people,  that  a  new,  dangerous 
and  unconstitutional  power  had  been  asserted  by  a  co-ordinate 
and  powerful  branch  of  the  government — let  the  right  be 
fully  established  that  any  power  or  person,  except  the  imme- 
diate constituents  of  each  separate  member  of  Congress,  shall 
have  authority  to  call  their  acts  in  question  —  or  that  a  man 
at  the  head  of  our  government,  at  whose  command  six  thousand 
bayonets  will  bristle  in  an  instant,  surrounded  immediately  and 
remotely,  by  one  hundred  thousand  organized  office  holders, 
and  numerous  partisan  office  seekers,  ready  to  obey  his  will  — 
shall  have  authority  to  protest  against,  interrupt  or  question 

12  Sangamo  Journal,  February  16,  1839. 

18  In  another  light  this  appears  in  the  complaint  of  democratic  papers,  that 
whig  merchants  would  not  advertise  in  them. 


WHIG   AND    DEMOCRATIC   PARTIES  259 

any  of  the  acts  of  the  peoples'  Representatives,  who  are  sitting 
in  the  presence  of  this  mighty  power,  unarmed  and  unprotected, 
and  who  should  look  alone  to  the  approbation  of  their  constitu- 
ents and  the  ballot  box  for  all  favor  and  all  rebukes;  in  a 
word,  let  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  lose  its  independence 
by  the  loss  of  public  confidence  .  .  .  and  you  must  perceive 
that  all  power  will  soon  be  centered  in  one  man;  and  that  our 
march  to  despotism  is  inevitable."  14  With  a  somewhat  similar 
feeling  the  whigs  were  occasionally  disposed  to  question  the 
right  of  instruction,  arguing  it  as  absurd  that  a  legislature  con- 
stitutionally empowered  to  elect  senators  every  six  years  should 
by  this  device  elect  them  whenever  it  would.15  Senators  took 
an  oath  to  maintain  the  constitution,  not  to  obey  their  constitu- 
ents. It  was  precisely  on  this  article  in  the  whig  creed,  the 
guarantee  of  constitutional  stability  through  the  independence 
of  the  legislature,  that  the  democratic  attack  began.  Thus  in 
1835  the  democrats  branded  the  avowed  attempt  of  the  whigs 
to  throw  the  election  into  the  house  of  representatives  as  an 
endeavor  to  defeat  the  will  of  the  nation.16  They  quoted,  too, 
the  alleged  remarks  of  Tristram  Burgess  that  he  wished  all 
future  presidential  elections  might  take  place  in  the  house  of 
representatives  so  that  no  candidate  could  ride  in  on  a  wave 
of  popularity  and  unseat  republican  institutions.17  Exagger- 
ated charges  of  the  same  sort  accused  the  whigs  of  desiring 
a  property  qualification  for  voters  and  a  president  elected  for 
life.  Democratic  papers  fed  their  readers  with  clippings  accus- 
ing the  United  States  Bank  of  buying  up  newspapers,  and 
portraying  the  rowdyism  and  violence  of  whigs  in  the  east.  As 
indicated  elsewhere  the  reputed  hostility  of  eastern  whigs  to 

™Sangamo  Journal,  March  5,  1836. 

15Alton  Telegraph,  April  6,  1836.  This  theory  of  the  independence  of  the 
legislature  is  probably  the  abstract  expression  of  the  impatience  of  many  con- 
gressmen personally  strong  in  their  districts  at  attempts  to  dragoon  them  into 
party  ranks  by  stirring  up  trouble  for  them  at  home.  A  favorite  cry  of  the 
whigs  was  election  of  men  on  their  merits,  not  for  their  party  affiliations.  For 
example  see  Chicago  American,  June  20,  1835. 

16  Illinois  State  Register,  November  9,  1838.     The  whigs  it  was  said,  like 
English  lories,  scorned   instructions,  Illinois  Advocate,  December   23,    1835. 

17  Ibid.,  May  20,  1835. 


260  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

removal  of  the  Indians,  to  graduation,  to  preemption,  and  to 
squatters  was  a  heavy  load  for  their  party  in  the  west  to  bear. 
More  generally  of  course,  they  had  to  bear  the  imputation  of 
aristocracy  and  of  being  friends  to  the  rich.  The  democrats 
labored  to  show  that  the  whigs  were  the  spiritual  descendants 
of  the  federalist  party,  just  as  the  whigs  labored  to  enumerate 
the  many  federalists  who  had  been  baptised  democrats  in 
good  standing.  Challenged  to  define  federalism,  one  demo- 
cratic editor  strung  together  the  following  familiar  political 
catch  phrases  of  the  day  —  believes  in  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  that  no  vulgar  democrat  is  fit  for  office,  talks  of  the 
huge  paws  of  the  farmers,  is  for  Daniel  Webster  or  any  other 
available  candidate,  fills  people  with  Jack  Downing  froth  and 
lies  instead  of  facts  relating  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country. 
The  sketch  of  the  whig,  as  the  locofoco  affected  to  see  him, 
could  not  be  improved  on.18 

Among  the  whigs  there  was  always  a  strong  undercurrent 
of  native  American  sentiment  which  the  democrats,  intent  on 
securing  the  foreign  vote,  were  not  slow  to  bring  to  the  surface. 
In  most  instances  where  it  appeared  overtly  in  Illinois  this 
sentiment  was  expressed  in  the  very  judicious  question  as  to 
whether  newly  arrived  immigrants  to  the  United  States  should 
be  permitted  to  vote.  The  conservative  Backwoodsman,  proba- 
bly under  May's  tutelage,  in  1838  denounced  the  practice  of 
allowing  the  "  Irish  of  the  canal  zone "  who  had  been  six 
months  in  Illinois  to  vote  whether  naturalized  or  not.  It  pro- 
nounced that  if  foreigners  were  not  to  rule  the  United  States, 
the  question  of  foreign  votes  must  be  decided.  By  1839  the 
native  born  democrats  of  Joliet  had  been  forced  to  join  the 
whigs  against  the  Irish.  At  the  same  time  the  Irish  vote  in 
Cook  county  was  said  to  be  a  half  of  the  total.19 

18  Chicago  American,  April  22,  1837,  advocated  a  property  qualification  and 
barring  out  foreign  voters.     Sangamo  Journal,  February  2,  1839,  on  behalf  of 
the  whigs  disclaimed   a  similar  belief.     Illinois  State  Register  May  25,    1838, 
Chicago  Democrat,  May  21,  November  5,  1834,  January  15,  1838;  Illinois  Advo- 
cate, July  29,  1835. 

19  Peoria   Register,   October   20,    1838;    Chicago   American,    July    u,    1835, 
August  3,  12,  1839;  Sangamo  Journal,  September  i,  1838,  January  5,  1839,  clips 


WHIG  AND    DEMOCRATIC   PARTIES   261 

This  issue  leads  to  another  one  on  which  whigs  and  demo- 
crats joined  battle,  that  of  religious  observances.  The  whigs 
as  the  party  of  conservatism  were  naturally  sticklers  for  observ- 
ance of  religious  forms.  The  tendency,  of  course,  does  not 
appear  strongly  in  their  own  prints,  though  the  Chicago  Ameri- 
can did  clip  an  article  accusing  Tammany  Hall  of  atheism. 
But  the  Chicago  Democrat  complained  that  the  American  was 
charging  it  with  deistical  opinions  in  order  to  secure  the  sub- 
scriptions and  the  advertising  of  the  pious.  The  whigs  were 
inclined  to  be  emphatically  Protestant  and  were  accused,  in 
connection  with  Nativist  attacks,  of  being  anti-Catholic.  Most 
interesting  of  all,  toward  the  end  of  1833,  an  attack  was  made 
on  Duncan,  then  on  the  verge  of  turning  whig,  alleging  that 
he  had  come  to  represent  the  interests  of  the  bank  aristocracy 
and  the  national  church  aristocracy,  especially  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  and  the  clique  centering  around  Illinois  College.20 

So  far  as  in  this  period  the  whigs  succeeded  in  basing  their 
opposition  to  the  administration  on  fundamental  political  prin- 
ciples they  did  it  by  pointing  out  the  danger  to  free  institutions 
of  the  growth  of  the  executive  power.  The  lines  on  which  this 
attack  was  developed  have  already  been  indicated.  In  its 
milder  forms  it  appeared  as  a  suggestion  that  Van  Buren  was 
planning  to  found  a  dynasty — clipped  Out  of  the  whole  cloth 
of  a  silly  article  in  a  London  paper.  The  people  were  reminded 
of  the  rarity  with  which  earlier  presidents  had  used  the  veto. 

the  Backwoodsman.  This  material  appeared  at  the  time  the  whigs  were  much 
exercised  at  the  canal  vote  being  thrown  to  Douglas  against  Stuart.  The  Quincy 
Argus  declared  the  whole  difficulty  was  that  they  had  not  voted  whig;  clipping 
in  Illinois  State  Register,  September  28,  1838.  At  this  time  the  German  vote  in 
contradistinction  to  the  Irish  was  said  to  be  whig,  ibid.,  October  19,  1838.  Gus- 
tave  Koerner  on  behalf  of  his  German  fellow-citizens  addressed  an  inquiry  as 
to  the  belief  in  native  Americanism.  It  was  answered  with  a  letter  favoring 
a  liberal  encouragement  to  immigration,  ibid.,  July  6,  1838.  During  the  summer 
of  1835  the  Chicago  American  evinced  a  sharp  hostility  to  immigrant  voters, 
especially  in  its  clips,  July  u,  August  8;  it  attacked  Van  Buren  because  of  his 
supposed  willingness  ^to  let  immigrants  vote,  June  20,  1835. 

20  Chicago  American,  June  20,  July  n,  1835;  Chicago  Democrat,  extra, 
March  25,  1835;  Illinois  Advocate,  December  28,  1833,  November  n,  1835.  A 
basis  of  the  charge  was  the  fact  that  Duncan  had  refused  to  vote  for  R.  M. 
Johnson's  Sunday  mail  report.  A  resolution  approving  it  had  passed  the  Illi- 
nois senate  unanimously  January  17,  1831,  Senate  Journal,  1830-1831,  i  ses- 
sion, 262. 


262  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

After  1832  they  excused  the  defection  of  old-time  Jackson 
men  by  claiming  that  Jackson  himself  had  abandoned  his  prin- 
ciples, on  the  use  of  the  patronage,  on  internal  improvements, 
and  on  the  independence  of  the  judiciary  and  of  the  senate.  In 
1839  the  Alton  Telegraph  characterized  the  modern  democrat 
as  a  man  willing  to  bolt  his  principles  to  order  and  who  thus 
had  come  to  swallow  the  whole  Hartford  convention.21 

There  was  much  truth  in  the  whig  strictures  for  democratic 
principles  were  in  a  continual  process  of  evolution,  in  the  course 
of  which  reversals  were  frequent.  Jackson  had  come  into 
power  as  supposedly  the  friend  of  tariff  and  internal  improve- 
ments, the  foe  of  a  second  presidential  term,  and  of  the  use 
of  political  patronage,  yet  on  all  these  points  the  vigorous  old 
man  had  seen  or  been  made  to  see  new  light.  But  he  had  also 
come  in  as  a  protest  against  the  refusal  of  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives, in  exercising  its  constitutional  right  of  election,  to 
regard  the  expression  of  the  popular  will.  That  he  was  the 
vindicator  of  that  will  Andrew  Jackson  never  forgot.  He  was 
the  first  of  American  presidents  to  grasp  the  fact  that  he  might 
make  himself  the  representative  of  the  people.  It  was  in  the 
name  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  that  he  made  war 
on  the  bank.  Beyond  any  other  in  American  history  his  figure, 
aged,  but  not  senile,  vibrant,  passionate,  masterful,  has  the 
eternal  vigor  of  the  will  of  the  people. 

There  were  men  in  America  able  to  catch  the  inspiration 
and  to  enumerate  the  principles  of  a  new  democracy,  the  mov- 
ing force  in  the  war  of  the  people  against  the  moneyed  interests. 
Illinois  newspapers  copied  into  their  columns  George  Ban- 
croft's address  to  democratic  men  of  Massachusetts,  claiming 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  was  opposed 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  whigs  which  in  its  defiance  of  the  populace 
and  its  faith  in  special  privileges,  harks  back  to  the  principles 
of  their  predecessors,  the  whigs  of  1688.  Coupled  with  this 
doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  necessarily  went  a 

21  Sangamo  Journal,  December  18,  1831,  October  20,  1832;  Alton  Telegraph, 
April  6,  August  10,  1839. 


WHIG  AND    DEMOCRATIC   PARTIES  263 

limitation  of  what  their  servants  in  congress  could  do,  a  denial 
of  the  power  of  congress  to  grant  special  privileges  to  corpora- 
tions, or  by  tariff  or  internal  improvement  to  confer  on  any 
section  of  the  country  benefits  in  which  the  whole  was  not  a 
sharer.  Hence  strict  constitutional  construction;  "The  world 
is  too  much  governed"  was  the  motto  which  the  Globe  set 
at  the  head  of  its  column.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  repudiation 
of  the  doctrine  that  corporate  rights  are  irrepealable.  The 
whigs  believed  that  these  principles  of  the  democrats  were 
anarchistic,  and  they  summarized  their  opponents'  general 
principles  as  agrarianism,  Fanny  Wrightism  (free  love),  and 
finally  the  supreme  term  of  abuse,  locofocoism.22 

These  were  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  democratic 
party.  Whoever  attempts  to  discover  that  they  were  consist- 
ently carried  out,  that  they  were  in  many,  very  many,  cases 
more  than  stalking  horses  for  coming  politicians,  whoever 
seeks  to  find  in  many  of  their  caucuses  and  conventions  anything 
but  knavery  and  sharp  politics  will  be  disappointed.  But  the 
ideal  was  always  there ;  the  principle  that  the  democrats  stood 
for  the  rights  of  the  many  against  the  few,  for  the  rights  of 
man  against  the  rights  of  property  remained  to  mold  into  a 
different  and  more  ideal  frame  the  principles  of  some,  at  least, 
of  those  who  professed  them.23 

Their  translation  into  measures  of  interest  in  Illinois  inter- 
nal affairs  indicates  why  the  practical  interests  of  Illinois  would 
tend  to  bring  the  state  to  the  support  of  the  democrats.  To 
Illinois,  protection  for  its  almost  purely  agricultural  products 
was  unnecessary.  The  United  States  Bank  and  its  place  in 
the  financial  life  of  the  country  was  a  thing  capable  of  being 
visualized  only  by  a  few.  And  when  panic  descended  on  the 
country  the  people  of  Illinois,  the  rank  and  file  not  being  hard 
hit,  accepted  the  theory  that  the  bank  had  deliberately  brought 

22 Illinois  Advocate,  November  25,  1835;  Chicago  Democrat,  June  3,  1835, 
May  4,  18,  i8?6;  Sangamo  Journal,  December  16,  1837.  The  whigs  argued  that 
the  credit  sysv  m  was  really  the  democratic  system,  as  it  enabled  the  man  with 
little  money  to  get  ahead. 

23  See  the  resolutions  readopted  at  the  state  convention  of  1838,  Illinois 
State  Register,  June  8,  1838. 


264  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

it  on.  The  issue  of  internal  improvements  by  federal  aid  was 
more  tempting;  but  the  canal  grant  was  assured;  in  the  thirties 
the  democratic  principles  were  still  liberal  enough  to  authorize 
grants  for  the  improvements  of  the  great  rivers ;  and  the  only 
whig  proposal,  the  distribution  bill,  was  ominous  of  an  eastern 
public  land  policy.  To  the  west  the  vital  questions  were  as  yet 
those  of  the  Indians  and  the  public  lands  —  and  on  both  of 
these  questions  they  naturally  accepted  the  leadership  of  the 
men  with  western  vision,  Jackson  and  Benton. 


XIV.     THE  PASSING  OF  THE  OLD  DEMOCRACY 

THE  democratic  party  in  Illinois  had  scarcely  completed 
its  physical  growth  before  its  deterioration  began.  It 
had  achieved  unity  and  coherence  and  had  become  a  distinct 
entity;  but  meanwhile  in  the  union  at  large  the  party  was 
rapidly  changing;  old  rallying  cries  were  forgotten,  and  others 
hitherto  comparatively  unimportant  were  stressed.  The  bank 
and  the  tariff  sank  to  subordinate  places,  and  slavery  and  its 
protection  became  the  exemplification  and  end  of  states  rights 
doctrine.  The  party  was  becoming  less  and  less  western  and 
more  and  more  southern.  Its  members  in  Illinois,  rallying 
behind  the  old  party  name,  were  slow  to  see  that  nationally  in 
its  ideals  and  ends  the  party  was  not  what  it  had  been.  The 
overthrow  of  the  party  in  the  election  of  1840  marked  the 
beginning  of  the  end  of  the  old  democracy  in  the  nation;  and 
though  they  were  still  victorious  in  Illinois  the  democrats  were 
soon  to  perceive  that  a  change  in  their  national  relations  had 
taken  place. 

The  campaign  in  which  Harrison  was  elected  over  Van 
Buren  was  one  of  the  strangest  in  American  politics.  A  party 
presenting  an  essentially  sound  financial  policy  exemplified  in 
its  recent  record  was  swept  away  by  opponents  who  scarcely 
joined  issue  with  it  save  to  caricature  its  views  and  who  placed 
their  chief  reliance  on  a  pageantry  and  enthusiasm  essentially 
sentimental  in  their  appeal.  Not  only  was  the  contest  and  its 
aftermath  one  of  the  most  picturesque  in  American  annals,  but 
it  was  with  reference  to  the  political  habits  of  the  parties  and 
the  nation  one  of  the  most  significant. 

On  issues  the  position  of  the  democratic  party  in  1840 
should  have  been  strong.  Van  Buren  by  the  boldest  and  most 
statesmanlike  measure  of  his  career  had  brought  his  party 

265 


266  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

finally  to  accept  the  subtreasury  as  against  any  bank.  The 
county  meetings  and  conventions  in  1839-1840  generally 
declared  for  the  subtreasury  and  the  divorce  of  banks  and 
government,  often  with  a  fling  at  banks  in  general  as  founded 
on  special  privilege,  often  with  a  reference  to  the  danger  of 
moneyed  oligarchies  and  paper  money  mills  and  sometimes 
with  an  indorsement  of  Benton's  specie  currency  policy.1  With 
similar  unanimity  they  attacked  the  whig  bills  barring  office- 
holders from  participation  in  elections  and  approved  the  repeal 
of  the  salt  tax.  Again  they  recurred  to  their  old  doctrine  that 
the  whigs  were  really  federalists  in  the  hope  of  placing  on  them 
the  stigma  of  an  unpatriotic  past. 

The  whigs,  on  the  other  hand,  attacked  the  subtreasury 
with  a  vehemence  that  as  their  opponents  complained  occa- 
sionally ignored  the  nature  of  the  institution.  It  is  true  that 
they  frequently  argued  for  the  necessity  of  a  bank,  a  paper 
currency,  and  a  credit  system,  maintaining  that  the  prevailing 
hard  times  were  due  to  the  destruction  of  the  paper  circulating 
medium  of  the  country;  they  argued  with  some  plausibility 
that  the  credit  system  instead  of  being  aristocratic  in  essence 
was  really  democratic  inasmuch  as  it  enabled  the  man  without 
capital  of  his  own  to  get  a  start  in  life  on  borrowed  money. 
But  they  also  argued  that  the  democratic  ideal  was  to  reduce 
the  wages  of  labor  and  the  price  of  staple  commodities  to  star- 
vation rates  —  eleven  pence  a  day  wages  and  sixteen  cents  a 
bushel  for  wheat;  they  even  went  so  far  as  to  draw  conclusions 
from  the  supposed  fact  that  the  subtreasury  was  the  institution 
of  the  autocratic  countries  of  Europe  and  hence  unsuited  to 
the  free  air  of  America.  They  raked  up  a  scheme  for  a  terri- 
torial army  proposed  by  Joel  R.  Poinsett,  the  secretary  of  war, 
and  prophesied  the  direst  consequences  to  American  freedom 
when  by  its  adoption  and  by  the  institution  of  the  subtreasury 
both  the  purse  and  the  sword  would  rest  in  the  hands  of  one 
man.  They  condemned  the  subtreasury  as  a  fertile  source  of 

1  Illinois  State  Register,  August  31,  November  9,  16,  23,  30,  December  7, 
21,  1839,  January  4,  April  3,  1840. 


PASSING   OF   THE   OLD   DEMOCRACY  267 

defalcations  on  the  part  of  the  various  officers  with  public 
money  in  their  charge.  "The  Saviour  of  the  world,"  said 
Abraham  Lincoln,  "chose  twelve  disciples,  and  even  one  of 
that  small  number,  selected  by  superhuman  wisdom,  turned  out 
a  traitor  and  a  devil.  And,  it  may  not  be  improper  here  to 
add,  that  Judas  carried  the  bag — was  the  Sub  Treasurer  of 
the  Saviour  and  his  disciples." 2 

However,  in  the  heat  of  the  campaign  the  fiercest  fighting 
centered  about  the  personality  of  the  rival  candidates.  The 
whigs  assailed  Van  Buren  for  having  forced  the  subtreasury 
scheme  through  after  repeated  rejections  by  congress,  recalling 
the  fact  that  Jackson  had  never  favored  it.  In  this  as  in  his 
candidacy  for  a  second  term,  they  declared,  Van  Bur'en  had 
departed  from  the  principles  espoused  by  Jackson  in  the  days 
of  his  strength.  In  the  wake  of  the  democratic  policy  they  pre- 
dicted the  advent  of  free  trade  and  as  its  corollary,  direct 
taxation,  the  rising  power  of  the  president  fortified  by  the 
use  of  the  patronage,  the  army,  the  funds  of  the  subtreasury, 
and  the  general  perversion  of  the  ways  of  the  fathers.  It 
would  have  been  well  had  their  attack  gone  no  further.  The 
old  charges  of  1836,  however,  accusing  Van  Buren  of  foppery, 
of  voting  for  a  limited  franchise,  and  for  allowing  the  vote  to 
free  negroes  also  appeared.  Congressman  Charles  Ogle 
gained  much  temporary  fame  by  a  speech  widely  circulated  in 
different  versions,  in  which  he  commented  on  the  luxurious  fur- 
nishings provided  for  the  president's  house  at  the  public 
expense  and  made  rather  clever  demagogic  use  of  French 
menus  and  bills  written  in  French  for  the  materials  for  certain 
pieces  of  furniture  such  as  taborets,  which  he  pointed  out  had 
their  place  in  the  ceremonial  of  European  courts.  Occasionally 
a  paper  deemed  worthy  of  circulation  an  absurd  story  from  an 
absurd  London  newspaper  to  the  effect  that  Van  Buren  was 
planning  to  establish  a  dynasty  on  the  throne  of  the  United 
States.  Under  these  circumstances  the  visit  of  "  Prince  John  " 

2  Sangamo  Journal,  March  6,  20,  April  3,  10,  May  29,  July  10,  October  30, 
1840;  Chicago  American,  May  29,  July  i,  10,  August  20,  1840;  Alton  Telegraph, 
February  8,  September  5,  1840. 


268  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Van  Buren  to  the  court  of  England  was  a  portent  fraught  with 
dire  meaning.3 

In  Illinois  especially  the  old  theme  of  Van  Buren's  hostility 
to  the  west  was  made  to  do  duty,  reenforced  in  this  instance  by 
Van  Buren's  refusal  to  support  schemes  for  internal  improve- 
ment in  the  west,  the  abandonment  of  work  on  the  Cumberland 
road  and  the  lake  harbors,  and  the  sale  of  the  machinery  per- 
taining to  them.  This  it  was  said  by  the  whigs  was  the  price 
that  Van  Buren  was  paying  for  Calhoun's  support.  In  con- 
tradistinction to  such  policies  the  whig  papers  cited  Clay's 
last  distribution  bill,  which  they  calculated  would  have  aided 
the  state's  credit  in  a  marked  degree.4 

The  democrats  tried  in  vain  to  counter  with  effect  on  the 
character  of  Harrison.  They  rang  the  charges  on  the  fact 
that  as  a  young  man  he  had  joined  what  was  called  an  abolition 
society;  they  used  once  more  the  old  charge  that  he  had  voted 
to  sell  white  men  into  slavery.  They  twisted  his  words  to 
make  it  apparent  that  in  1798  he  had  been  a  black  cockade 
federalist  of  the  Adams  school.  They  assailed  his  military 
career  at  its  most  vulnerable  points.  They  maintained  with 
some  truth  that  he  was  a  manufactured  candidate  designed  to 
catch  the  votes  of  the  west.  They  told  again  and  again  the 
story  that  a  committee  at  his  home  at  North  Bend  had  him  in 
charge  and  that  he  was  kept  in  a  cage ;  a  charge  which  the  whigs 
insisted  in  interpreting  in  a  more  or  less  literal  sense  and  in 
repelling  with  scorn.5 

The  fatal  blunder  of  the  democrats  in  scornfully  referring 
to  Harrison  as  a  log  cabin  and  hard  cider  candidate  gave  the 
whig  leaders  their  inspiration.  By  the  rarest  stroke  of  political 

8  Sangamo  Journal,  April  10,  July  3,  August  2,  21,  1840;  Chicago  American, 
April  20,  May  2,  8,  July  16,  August  18,  September  23,  1840;  Illinois  State  Regis- 
ter, September  25,  October  2,  1840;  Belleville  Advocate,  September  5,  1840. 

4  Sangamo  Journal,  October  12,  1839,  January  24,  July  10,  October  16, 
1840;  Chicago  American,  April  17,  August  13,  September  24,  October  28,  Decem- 
ber 29,  1840. 

6  Illinois  State  Register,  January  21,  February  21,  March  6,  13,  April  17, 
May  8,  22,  29,  September  28,  1840;  Sangamo  Journal,  January  28,  March  13, 
1840;  Belleville  Advocate,  April  4,  n,  18,  May  2,  August  29,  September  12, 
October  10,  1840;  Chicago  American,  June  10,  October  15,  1840;  Chicago  Demo- 
crat, April  13,  25,  1840. 


PASSING   OF  THE   OLD   DEMOCRACY  269 

genius  they  took  Harrison,  a  man,  good,  pious,  well-meaning, 
but  one  who  had  never  displayed  brilliant  ability  either  in 
politics  or  in  war  and  represented  him  as  a  man  of  a  stature 
comparable  to  the  heroes  of  the  Revolution,  a  man  whose 
political  virtues  would  bring  back  the  golden  age  of  the  past. 
The  veteran  of  the  Revolution  was  told  that  Harrison  had  re- 
ceived his  first  commission  from  the  hands  of  George  Washing- 
ton. The  farmer  of  the  west  was  reminded  that  in  a  double 
sense  he  owed  his  farm  to  the  man  who  had  at  once  secured 
the  passage  of  the  law  for  the  sale  of  small  tracts  and  had 
protected  the  frontier  from  the  Indians.  As  monster  rallies 
were  held  on  the  old  battlefields  of  the  west,  now  centers  of 
a  teeming  population,  the  sentimental  appeal  for  the  man 
whose  active  life  had  spanned  this  marvellous  progress,  who 
had  represented  the  whole  Northwest  Territory  in  congress 
and  who  had  been  the  backwoods  governor  of  what  were  now 
three  prosperous  states  was  well-nigh  irresistible. 

The  sentiment  found  expression  in  political  pageantry  on  a 
scale  hitherto  undreamed  of.  There  was  rough  horseplay 
enough  in  the  manner  of  college  freshmen;  as  for  instance 
when  a  delegation  from  Chicago  setting  out  to  a  monster  whig 
rally  at  Springfield  captured  an  enemy  banner  in  the  form  of 
the  derisive  petticoat  and  bore  its  trophy  with  it  in  triumph. 
There  was  much  carolling  of  whig  songs,  which  seemed  to 
the  democrats  the  only  answers  their  opponents  made  to  chal- 
lenges on  the  serious  issues  of  the  campaign.  The  whigs, 
abandoning  all  discussion,  swung  along  in  unreasoning  sub- 
jection to  the  refrain 

Without  a  why  or  a  wherefore 
We'll  go  for  Harrison  therefore. 

Yet  there  was  a  deeper  meaning  to  all  this  seeming  frivolity. 
In  the  delegations  that  set  out  to  the  monster  whig  rallies, 
camping  out  at  night  on  their  way  in  the  log  cabins  set  up  in 
the  cities  long  past  the  pioneer  stage,  in  which  banker,  mer- 
chant, and  mechanic  toasted  Harrison  in  mugs  of  hard  cider, 


270  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

one  catches  the  spirit  of  a  sort  of  national  feast  of  tabernacles, 
a  commemoration  of  the  hardships  and  privations  by  which  the 
west  had  been  won.  East  and  west  alike  at  outs  with  the 
administration,  but  unable  to  agree  on  any  set  of  measures, 
found  common  cause  in  the  sentimental  dream  that  with  the 
election  of  Harrison  the  political  virtues  of  the  fathers  and 
the  golden  age  might  come  once  more. 

With  the  whigs  one  monster  rally  followed  another.  At 
one  in  McDonough  there  were  said  to  have  been  present  2,500 
men  anjd  500  women;  at  Galena  2,486  men  and  340  women; 
at  Carlinville  3,000  persons.6  The  greatest  of  all  was  reported 
to  have  been  that  at  Springfield  which  called  together  some 
fifteen  thousand  attendants  who  paraded  by  county  delegations 
with  banners  and  special  floats.  In  reply  the  democrats  could 
only  allege  that  these  were  drunken  and  disorderly  meetings, 
but  they  protested  with  more  truth  that  the  whigs  were  making 
an  appeal  frankly  to  the  passions.  The  whigs  retorted  that 
the  personal  weakness  of  Van  Buren  in  the  state  necessitated 
using  the  great  name  of  Jackson  at  every  turn  in  an  appeal 
essentially  perhaps  as  sentimental  as  their  own.  The  whigs 
wisely  refrained  from  attacking  Jackson,  rather  professing  a 
belief  that  the  old  Jackson  men  would  vote  for  Harrison.7 

In  spite  of  all,  however,  the  whigs  did  not  carry  Illinois. 
They  attributed  their  vote,  a  little  short  of  a  majority,  to  the 
fraudulent  ballots  cast  along  the  line  of  the  canal;  but  the 
democrats  were  as  quick  to  respond  with  countercharges  of 
fraud  and  wholesale  colonization.  The  whigs  were  able  to 
rejoice,  however,  over  a  series  of  victories  from  the  carry- 
ing of  Maine  to  the  final  success,  which  was  celebrated  with 
firing  of  cannon  for  the  Harrison  states.  Chicago  celebrated 
with  a  barbecue  at  "Walter  Newberry's  enclosed  lot,  corner 
of  Clarke  and  North  Water."8 

6  Sangamo  Journal,  July  17,  August  2,  1840. 

7  Sangamo  Journal,  January  10,  June  5,  1840;  Chicago  American,  June  10, 
1840;  Chicago  Democrat,  April  29,  May  20,  1840. 

8  Illinois  State  Register,  October  16,  23,  1840;  Alton  Telegraph,  October  31, 
1840;  Chicago  American,  September  18,  November  23,  25,  December  4,  1840. 


PASSING   OF   THE   OLD    DEMOCRACY  271 

With  that  election  much  passed  out  of  American  politics. 
It  was  the  last  on  which  the  shadow  of  the  aggression  of  slave 
power  in  the  west  did  not  fall  heavily.  It  saw  the  overthrow 
of  the  older  democratic  party.  That  party  under  an  uninspir- 
ing leader  had  ranged  itself  for  battle  behind  measures 
following  naturally  from  the  principles  of  democracy  that  it 
professed  and  it  had  been  smitten  hip  and  thigh.  The  sober 
second  thought  to  which  the  democrats  appealed  turned  the 
tide  in  their  favor  at  the  next  election,  but  thenceforth  it  became 
increasingly  apparent  that  southern  politicians  had  taken  the 
party  out  of  pawn  and  that  the  vigor  of  its  creed  had  departed. 

The  whigs  did  well  to  rejoice  while  they  might  for  one  of 
the  most  ironical  instances  of  retributive  justice  in  politics  that 
history  affords  was  about  to  overtake  them.  They  had  by  the 
nomination  of  Harrison  and  Tyler  sought  to  gather  together 
the  various  elements  that  had  in  ten  years  past  split  off  from 
the  Jacksonian  party.  They  had,  therefore,  made  no  attempt 
to  formulate  a  national  platform  of  principles  which  would 
have  to  hold  bank  and  tariff  whigs  side  by  side  with  Virginia 
abstractionists  like  Tyler  who  prided  themselves  on  their  votes 
for  the  force  bill.  When  the  aged  Harrison  sank  into  the 
grave  a  month  after  inauguration,  almost  with  his  last  breath, 
so  the  democrats  believed,  protesting  against  the  policy  of 
removals  forced  upon  him  in  violation  of  his  pledges,  the  whigs 
were  face  to  face  with  a  man  on  whose  loyalty  they  had  no  hold. 
The  party  platform  had  been  indefinite  on  the  political  issues. 
True  in  Illinois,  they  had  argued  for  a  national  bank,  but  they 
did  not  stand  firmly  arrayed  for  it,  contenting  themselves  with 
finding  fault  with  their  opponents  rather  than  proposing  meas- 
ures of  their  own.  Therefore  they  could  not  justly  hold  Tyler 
bound  to  the  execution  of  their  program. 

Previously  the  whigs  had  been  in  high  feather.  They  had 
occasionally  warned  the  people  that  too  much  in  the  way  of  a 
revival  of  business  must  not  be  expected  until  whig  measures 
could  be  inaugurated,  but  they  gloated  over  the  prospect  of  a 
United  States  Bank  and  of  a  retaliation  on  the  democrats  by 


272  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

a  policy  of  removals  that  ostensibly  sparing  the  worthy  among 
their  opponents  in  office  would  in  effect  spare  few  or  none.  It 
was  true,  that  the  democrats  complained  that  Harrison's 
inaugural  address  was  no  more  specific  on  bank  or  tariff  than 
previous  party  pronouncements  had  been  but  the  whig  papers 
asserted  that  his  sentiments  on  the  supremacy  of  the  legislature, 
the  veto,  and  officeholders'  interference  in  politics  would 
restore  the  halcyon  days  of  Washington.9 

It  was  not  at  first  apparent  that  the  death  of  Harrison  and 
the  accession  of  Tyler  had  brought  about  any  marked  change. 
Democratic  papers  set  about  appropriating  for  their  own  use 
the  last  of  the  sentiment  and  glamour  that  had  enveloped  Har- 
rison by  insinuating  that  the  importunity  of  whig  office  seekers 
for  removals  had  hastened  his  death  and  that  the  last  words 
of  his  delirium,  "  Sir,  I  wish  you  to  understand  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  the  Constitution.  I  wish  them  carried  out.  I  ask 
nothing  more,"  represented  a  last  appeal  against  the  force  that 
was  driving  him  to  the  violation  of  his  preelection  pledges. 
Indeed  Tyler's  early  removals  caused  renewed  wails  from  the 
democrats.  The  Belleville  Advocate  expressed  a  lingering 
hope  that  Tyler  might  be  consistent  with  his  strict  construction- 
ist  principles  and  oppose  a  bank;  but  the  State  Register 
pronounced  his  message  a  jumble  of  federalism,  democracy, 
whiggery,  and  locofocoism.10 

The  successive  bank  vetoes  at  the  special  session  of  con- 
gress sent  politics  spinning  like  a  teetotum.  The  Alton  Tele- 
graph, while  deprecating  the  burning  of  the  president  in  effigy 
by  indignant  whigs  at  Jacksonville,  was  disposed  to  call  for 
instructions  to  Tyler  to  resign.  The  Sangamo  Journal  was  at 
best  inclined  to  say  little,  and  when  it  spoke,  spoke  in  sorrow 
rather  than  anger.  It  protested  that  it  could  see  no  cause  for 
locofoco  rejoicing,  for  Tyler  had  approved  the  repeal  of  the 
subtreasury  and  the  loan,  bankrupt,  and  distribution  bills. 
How  could  even  locofocos  take  pleasure  in  the  ruin  of  their 

9  Chicago  American,  December  14,  1840,  February  27,  March  16,  1841. 

10  Illinois  State  Register,  May  19,  1841;  Belleville  Advocate,  April  23,  May 
15,  29,  June  26,  1841. 


PASSING   OF   THE   OLD   DEMOCRACY  273 

country?  "  The  Log  Cabins  had  been  blown  up,"  true  enough, 
and  pork  and  beef  were  selling  at  two  cents  a  pound!  The 
democratic  papers  triumphantly  proclaimed  that  Tyler  had 
followed  his  conscience.  The  State  Register  defended  his 
integrity,  averring  that  while  the  whigs  had  made  the  bank  an 
issue  in  Illinois  and  had  been  beaten  on  it  they  had  not  made 
it  so  throughout  the  nation.  The  democratic  county  meetings 
throughout  the  state  in  the  fall  of  1841,  while  condemning  the 
whig  repeal  of  the  subtreasury,  tariff,  and  distribution  meas- 
ures and  occasionally  censuring  Tyler  for  his  share  in  them, 
were  disposed  to  give  the  president  full  praise  for  his  veto  of 
the  bank.11 

The  whigs,  unable  like  the  democrats  to  wait  for  action  on 
the  part  of  their  opponents,  rallied  slowly.  On  the  bank 
scheme  proposed  in  Tyler's  fall  message,  the  whig  papers  were 
not  enthusiastic.  The  general  consensus  of  their  opinion  as 
collected  by  the  Sangamo  Journal  was  "  half  a  loaf  is  better 
than  no  bread."  The  Sangamo  Journal,  inspired,  as  William 
Walters  of  the  State  Register  insinuated,  by  hopes  of  obtaining 
the  post-office  printing,  was  inclined  to  be  friendly  to  the  ad- 
ministration. The  whigs  attempted  to  attribute  the  hard  times 
to  the  specie  standard.  In  the  winter  of  1842  they  wished 
to  revive  the  tariff  issue.  In  part  their  propaganda,  founded 
as  it  was  on  the  danger  of  competition  to  southern  cotton  in 
British  markets  by  East  Indian  cotton,  was  manifestly  designed 
to  win  the  south  to  the  whigs.  Most  of  the  arguments  seemed 
hardly  adapted  to  western  consumption  with  the  possible  excep- 
tion of  the  home  market  argument  and  the  fact  that  American 
wheat  was  taxed  in  England.  They  taunted  the  democrats 
with  fearing  to  join  issue  on  the  question,  and  in  fact  the  demo- 
cratic papers  had  little  to  say  till  after  Tyler's  veto.12 

11  Alton  Telegraph,  August  28,  September  4,  25,  1841 ;  Illinois  State  Register, 
September  3,  October  r,   1841;  Sangamo  Journal,  September  3,   17,  24,  October 
29,  1841;  Belleville  Advocate,  September  3,  November  n,  25,  1841. 

12  Sangamo   Journal,  January   6,   February  4,   April    8,    15,    December   22, 
1842;  Chicago  American,  January  14,  21,  February  u,  26,  April  20,  September 
16,  1842;  Illinois  State  Register,  January  14,  October  7,  1842;  Belleville  Advo- 
cate, December  23,  1841,  August  18,  October  13,  1842. 


274  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

In  the  midst  of  the  confusion,  party  lines  for  a  time  were 
almost  erased.  Clay  and  his  friends  had  in  the  name  of  the 
whigs  excommunicated  John  Tyler,  but  for  a  time  the  mighty 
Webster  remained  in  Tyler's  cabinet.  Tyler  was  able  to  count 
on  many  former  democrats  as  well  who  rallied  for  a  time  to 
his  standard.  Charles  Prentice  persuaded  William  Walters 
of  the  Illinois  State  Register  by  dreams  of  controlling  the  pat- 
ronage in  the  state  to  make  overtures  to  Tyler,  which  Prentice 
used  to  persuade  Tyler  of  his  control  of  the  party  in  Illinois. 
A  longing  for  the  patronage  caused  many  whigs  and  democrats 
to  come  as  near  to  Tyler  as  their  consciences  would  permit.13 

In  the  whig  party  the  Clay  men  were  the  irreconcilables. 
The  attitude  which  the  party  assumed  toward  Webster  is 
instructive.  Immediately  after  the  vetoes,  the  Telegraph  was 
inclined  to  criticize  him  for  not  resigning  and  the  Journal  to 
palliate  his  remaining  in  office.  By  the  fall  of  1842,  however, 
whig  papers  were  generally  attacking  him  openly.  The  demo- 
cratic papers  during  the  congressional  campaign  of  1843  were 
inclined  to  diagnose  the  situation  as  Clay  with  his  measures  of 
assumption,  bank,  distribution,  and  tariff,  as  against  Tyler  and 
Webster,  again  the  old  Webster  of  1818,  the  opponent  of 
bank,  tariff,  and  the  American  system.  The  Telegraph  served 
notice  on  Webster  that  to  run  against  Clay  would  insure  his 
defeat  and  political  ruin.  By  December  the  Register  had 
decided  that  the  Clay  plan  was  to  use  Webster  to  elect  Clay 
and  then  drop  him,  and  that  accordingly  the  Illinois  whig 
leaders  had  ceased  to  attack  him.  Thus  the  question  of  the 
assumption  of  state  debts  by  the  national  government,  mani- 
festly Clay's  American  system  under  another  form,  was 
advanced  by  the  whigs  late  in  1842  for  the  congressional  cam- 
paign, the  Telegraph  coming  out  for  it  openly,  and  the 
American  at  first  hanging  back.  The  Register  pronounced  it 
the  plan  of  J.  Horsley  Palmer  of  Palmer,  Dent,  and  McKillop, 
the  great  London  financiers.  In  the  fall  of  1843  tne  whig  state 

18  Alton  Telegraph,  October  2,  9,  1841;  Belleville  Advocate,  December  i, 
1841;  Chicago  American,  March  29,  December  20,  1841,  March  12,  16,  October 
4,  12,  1842;  Sangamo  Journal,  October  i,  1841. 


convention  pronounced  the  issues  to  be  protection,  distribution, 
and  a  bank,  and  declared  the  party  was  united  behind  Clay.1' 

The  possibility  of  an  independent  Tyler  movement  in  the 
campaign  of  1844  was  not  disposed  of  till  the  opening  of  the 
campaign.  In  1843  Tyler  had  attempted  to  rally  the  office- 
holders to  the  Madisonian.  In  April  the  Register  had  assailed 
Isaac  Hill  for  going  over  to  Tyler,  declaring  that  as  a  third 
candidate  Tyler  could  not  get  thirty  votes  in  Illinois  and  pro- 
nouncing his  best  course  to  be  to  seek  to  unite  his  former 
political  associates.  But  at  the  same  time  Walters  through 
Prentice  was  cooperating  with  Tyler  to  get  whig  officeholders 
replaced  by  democrats.  In  the  spring  of  1 844,  A.  G.  Herndon, 
Archibald  Job,  G.  Elkin,  and  S.  R.  Rowan  were  active  for 
Tyler  on  the  Texas  issue,  but  finally  the  issue  was  transferred 
to  the  Polk  armory.15  Ebenezer  Peck  represented  it  as  the  last 
attempt  of  the  desperate  Tyler  men  to  get  away  from  the  tariff 
and  currency  issues. 

The  democrats  had  been  at  a  loss  as  to  their  candidate. 
James  Buchanan,  Lewis  Cass,  and  Thomas  Benton  had  been 
suggested  at  different  times.  In  August  of  1842  the  Chicago 
American  thought  they  were  about  to  take  up  Calhoun.  In 
the  summer  of  1842  when  Van  Buren  came  to  Chicago  on 
what  the  American  considered  an  electioneering  visit,  it  urged 
the  whigs  to  refrain  from  all  but  the  ordinary  civilities  to  him; 
Judge  Henry  Brown,  who  was  given  to  reminiscences  of  New 
York,  gave  a  picture  of  him  lounging  in  dandified  fashion 
about  Albany.  Some  one  placed  a  barrel  of  stale  cabbage  in 
the  public  square  in  possible  reference  to  Van  Buren's  Dutch 
ancestry,  but  no  further  unpleasantness  occurred.16 

For  a  time  there  was  a  boom  of  moderate  proportions  for 
R.  M.  Johnson.  The  Belleville  Advocate,  Reynolds'  paper, 

14  Illinois  State  Register,  March  3,  June  2,  16,  23,  December  8,  1843;  Alton 
Telegraph,  November  12,  1842,  April  15,  December  23,  1843;  Chicago  American, 
March  15,  July  21,  1842. 

15  Alton  Telegraph,  April  22,   1843;  Sangamo  Journal,  January  25,  April 
n,  May  30,  June  13,  July  14,  1844;  Illinois  State  Register,  April  7,  1843. 

16  Chicago  American,  December   n,   1841,  March   18,  June  23,  24,  July  8, 
August  6,   1842. 


276  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

came  out  for  him  in  1841  as  the  friend  of  the  west  and  the 
advocate  of  reduction  of  the  price  of  public  lands.  In  May 
of  1843  he  visited  Belleville  where  the  Advocate  had  not 
ceased  to  work  for  him.  It  insisted  that  he  would  get  five 
votes  in  Illinois  to  one  for  any  other  democratic  candidate. 
Only  the  Galena  Sentinel,  however,  came  to  the  support  of  the 
Advocate.  Johnson's  candidacy,  however,  was  thought  to  be 
linked  by  Reynolds  with  his  own  as  the  anti-convention  candi- 
date for  congress  against  Lyman  Trumbull,  Shields,  or 
Koerner.  The  Advocate  complained  that  the  county  conven- 
tions were  packed  against  Johnson  resolutions,  and  in  Illinois 
his  candidacy  was  practically  at  an  end.17 

By  the  late  fall  of  1843  tne  opinion  of  the  state  had  crystal- 
lized in  favor  of  Van  Buren.  The  Register  came  out  for  him, 
September  22,  the  Democrat,  December  20;  and  a  series  of 
county  meetings  had  previously  declared  for  him.  The  Regis- 
ter was  accused  of  supporting  Van  Buren  after  having  been 
bought  off  by  Benton  from  its  previous  support  of  Johnson. 
Possibly  too  the  Register  had  a  slight  inclination  toward 
Calhoun.18 

The  democrats  at  the  beginning  of  the  campaign,  began 
their  restatements  of  principles  in  such  form  as  has  already 
been  indicated.  They  began  too  a  series  of  bitter  attacks  on 
Clay  for  his  insolent  reference  in  1820  to  the  workers  of  the 
north  as  white  slaves,  for  his  contemptuous  remarks  about 
squatters  and  his  opposition  to  liberal  land  policies.  His  part 
in  the  Graves-Cilley  duel  and  his  general  violence  of  character 
were  all  brought  out,  even  to  the  alleged  "  corrupt  bargain." 
The  party  made  the  bank  and  the  tariff  its  more  serious  issues. 
The  whigs  in  their  pre-convention  campaign  assailed  Van  Buren 
on  the  old  issues  of  1836  and  1840  —  his  hostility  to  the  west, 
the  standing  army  of  1839.  The  issues  made  by  their  conven- 
tions were  usually  protection,  distribution,  a  bank,  one  term. 

17  Belleville  Advocate,  September   17,   1841,  May  18,  23,  December  21,  28, 
1843;  Alton  Telegraph,  September  9,  1843. 

18  Illinois  State  Register,  April   28,   June   16,   November   24,   December    i, 
1843,  February  16,  1844;  Belleville  Advocate,  November  2,  30,  1843. 


PASSING   OF   THE   OLD    DEMOCRACY  277 

The  democrats  contended  they  were  trying  for  a  hurrah  cam- 
paign like  that  of  1840,  and  evidenced  their  use  of  shingles  for 
purpose  of  applause.19 

A  first  result  of  the  nomination  of  Polk  instead  of  Van 
Buren  at  Baltimore  was  to  overset  all  the  whig  preparations. 
The  whigs  had  to  change  their  position  in  the  face  of  the  enemy, 
hastily  alleging  against  Polk  his  vote  against  the  Cumberland 
road  and  his  descent  from  tories,  and  finally  using  such  stories 
as  the  famous  Roorback.  This  last  consisted  in  an  incident  of 
Featherstonhaugh's  travels  which  was  revamped  into  a 
description  of  a  gang  of  slaves  being  marched  south  to  be  sold, 
each  branded  "  J.  K.  P."  This  thrilling  tale  professed  to  be 
extracted  from  the  travels  of  the  Baron  von  Roorback,  a 
mythical  German  nobleman  whose  name  has  found  immortality 
as  an  American  political  catchword. 

Otherwise  the  issues  were  narrowed  to  banks,  a  tariff,  and 
the  annexation  of  Texas;  and  in  all  these  the  democrats  had 
the  superior  position.20  Polk  was  easily  successful  in  Illinois 
and  successful  by  a  narrow  margin  in  the  nation. 

Yet  the  party  was  actually  far  from  unanimous.  The 
democratic  papers  had  been  quick  to  recover  from  their  invol- 
untary start  of  surprise  at  Folk's  nomination  and  to  multiply 
virtues  in  him  and  arguments  for  his  election.  Yet  the  Register 
lately  alleged  that  a  faction  in  Illinois  guided  by  Benton  had 
fought  desperately  against  him.  Once  his  course  on  the  Texas 
and  Oregon  questions  and  on  river  and  harbor  improvement 
had  become  clear,  that  same  faction  in  the  democracy  repudi- 
ated him  and  the  newer  southern  democracy  he  represented. 

19  Illinois  State  Register,  December  8,   1843,  April   5,  May   10,   31,   1844; 
Belleville  Advocate,  May  2,  9,  1844;  Chicago  Democrat,  March  27,  May  i,  15, 
1844;  Sangamo  Journal,  March  7,  April  n,  1844. 

20  Alton    Telegraph,  October   5,   26,   1844;    Vandalia  Free  Press,   July   20, 
1844;  Chicago  Democrat,  August  28,  October  16,  1844. 


XV.     STATE  POLITICS,   1840-1847 

SETTING  aside  national  politics  and  party  maneuverings 
for  advantage  on  the  issues  arising  from  the  internal 
improvement  system,  the  springs  of  political  life  between  1839 
and  1846  are  to  be  found  in  a  series  of  political  quarrels  and 
rivalries  ending  in  the  expulsion  from  active  politics  one  after 
another  of  the  older  political  leaders.  True  enough  there  were 
state  issues  proper  in  1839—1840;  but  these  speedily  became 
incrusted  with  personal  and  factional  rivalries.  To  trace  this 
whole  series  of  squabbles  would  be  insufferably  tedious.  If  the 
events  be  studied,  however,  as  clashes  between  certain  striking 
characters  —  Ebenezer  Peck,  T.  W.  Smith,  William  Walters, 
John  Reynolds,  and  John  Wentworth  —  they  may  engage  the 
reader's  attention. 

The  fact  that  the  whigs  were  in  an  unfortunate  situation 
on  two  state  issues  explains  their  failure  to  carry  Illinois  for 
Harrison  in  1840.  One  of  these  issues  arose  from  the  so-called 
"  life  office  "  controversy  in  which  they  were  on  the  unpopular 
side  of  a  question  that  might  be  treated  as  one  of  fundamental 
political  principle.  The  office  of  secretary  of  state  had  been 
held  by  A.  P.  Field  since  his  appointment  by  Governor 
Edwards  in  the  days  when  he  was  an  "  original  Jackson  man." 
The  passage  of  time,  however,  had  wrought  miracles  in  party 
alignments,  and  in  1838  Field  was  a  whig  too  inveterate  for 
the  democrats  to  endure  in  office.  When  Governor  Carlin 
attempted,  however,  to  choose  a  secretary  of  state  more  con- 
genial politically  to  his  associates,  Field,  always  of  a 
pugnacious  disposition,  refused  to  be  ousted,  pointing  out  that 
the  constitution  of  the  state  failed  to  specify  the  term  for  which 
the  secretary  of  state  was  to  be  chosen.  Accordingly  the  whig 
senate,  with  the  assistance  of  a  few  democrats,  supported  him 

278 


STATE   POLITICS  279 

in  standing  upon  his  so-called  rights.  The  governor's  nomina- 
tions were  rejected;  but  after  the  legislature  had  adjourned, 
the  governor's  appointee,  John  A.  McClernand,  sued  for  the 
office.  Two  justices  of  the  supreme  court,  Samuel  D.  Lock- 
wood  and  William  Wilson,  held  that  while  the  term  of  the 
office  was  not  for  life  the  tenure  under  the  constitution,  until 
the  senate  should  alter  it,  was  dependent  only  on  good  behavior. 
Thomas  C.  Browne,  a  third  justice,  because  he  was  related  to 
McClernand  did  not  give  his  opinion,  and  Theophilus  W. 
Smith  dissented. 

Politicians  were  quick  to  take  advantage  of  the  issue.  The 
democratic  papers  argued  that  it  was  beyond  the  constitutional 
power  of  the  legislature  to  fix  the  term  of  an  officer  appointed 
by  the  governor  and  accordingly  removable  by  him  with  the 
consent  of  the  body  that  concurred  in  the  appointment.1  They 
recalled  the  story  that  on  a  former  occasion  Elias  Kent  Kane, 
the  virtual  author  of  the  constitution,  had  declared  it  the  inten- 
tion of  the  convention  that  the  governor  should  have  power  to 
remove.  The  state  democratic  convention  accused  the  whigs 
of  favoring  a  life  tenure  of  office,  adding  to  the  accusation  an 
attack  on  the  "federalist"  judges  and  senate.  The  topic  was 
prescribed  to  the  local  conventions  by  a  democratic  circular 
issued  by  the  state  committee,  October  10,  1839  ;  and  it  figured 
duly  in  their  resolutions.2  The  final  result  was  that  no  law  was 
passed  and  that  the  right  of  governor  and  senate  to  remove 
was  vindicated. 

Before  the  life  office  question  had  been  settled,  another 
politico-constitutional  question  had  been  injected  into  state 
politics;  and,  though  the  democrats  were  far  from  being  in  so 
favorable  a  position  on  it,  in  the  end  it  gave  the  whigs  no  real 
advantage.  A  test  case  as  to  the  right  of  aliens  to  vote,  which 
Governor  Ford  declared  to  have  been  made  up  by  two  whigs 
and  which  the  court  itself  at  one  time  believed  to  be  fictitious, 

1  Illinois  State  Register,  August  17,  24,  31,  September  28,  December  14, 
25,  1839. 

-Ibid.,  November  2,  9,  23,  30,  December  7,  21,  1839,  April  3,  1840. 


28o  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

appeared  on  the  calendar  of  the  circuit  court  at  Galena.  It 
was  there  decided  on  the  principle  that  the  provision  of  the 
constitution  giving  the  franchise  to  free  male  inhabitants  of 
specified  age  and  color  did  not  serve  to  include  unnaturalized 
aliens  even  though  they  had  fulfilled  the  time  required  for  resi- 
dence. The  case  was  carried  up  to  the  supreme  court  in  1839 
and  argued  in  December.  It  came  up  again  in  June  when 
according  to  Ford,  Judge  Smith  privately  suggested  to  the 
lawyers  for  the  alien  side  a  flaw  in  the  record,  which  postponed 
the  decision  until  after  the  election  of  1840.  Meanwhile  the 
democratic  leaders  in  the  general  assembly  had  planned  such  a 
legislative  reorganization  of  the  judiciary  as  might  for  the 
future  at  least  secure  them  from  any  partisan  decisions  favor- 
ing the  whigs. 

The  justices  of  the  supreme  court  took  the  alarm  and 
handed  down  this  decision  on  the  case  at  the  December  term, 
1840.  Judge  Smith  in  the  longest  opinion  decided  the  case 
squarely  on  the  question  of  the  right  of  the  alien  to  vote 
whether  naturalized  or  not.  Judges  Lockwood  and  Wilson 
in  their  decisions  were  more  obscure.  They  concurred  in  the 
reversal  of  the  lower  court's  decision  but  solely,  as  nearly  as 
one  can  judge,  on  the  ground  that  the  law  left  the  clerk  no 
power  to  inquire  whether  the  voter  were  an  alien  or  not. 

The  assembly  did  not  wait  for  the  supreme  court.  On 
December  10,  1840,  Snyder  introduced  into  the  senate  a  bill 
for  the  reorganization  of  the  judiciary.  After  a  prolonged 
debate  the  bill  passed  the  senate  by  a  vote  of  twenty-two  to 
seventeen.  On  February  i  the  house  adopted  it  by  a  vote  of 
forty-five  to  forty.  In  neither  the  house  nor  the  senate  were 
the  democrats  able  to  cast  their  full  party  vote  for  the 
measure. 

As  passed  the  measure  provided  for  the  appointment  of 
five  additional  justices  of  the  supreme  court  who  with  the  four 
judges  already  sitting  were  to  perform  the  duties  of  the  nine 
circuits  of  the  state  and  incidentally  insure  a  democratic  major- 
ity in  the  court.  On  February  8  the  council  of  revision  returned 


STATE   POLITICS  281 

the  measure  with  its  objections  signed  only  by  the  members  of 
the  supreme  court.  The  three  whig  members  instanced  the 
terms  of  the  measure  and  the  fact  that  the  circuit  judges  would 
be  so  overworked  that  cases  would  accumulate  on  the  dockets. 
Smith  dissented  on  the  ground  that  the  act  was  unconstitutional 
as  retroactive  and  that  it  was  subversive  of  private  right  as 
well  as  of  public  faith  to  the  displaced  circuit  judges.  On  the 
reconsideration  of  the  bill  in  the  senate,  E.  D.  Baker  attempted, 
as  nearly  as  one  can  determine,  to  start  a  filibuster,  but  was 
promptly  declared  out  of  order  when  he  attempted  to  read 
documents  or  to  have  them  read  by  the  clerk  and  finally  gave 
up.  The  bill  passed  the  same  day  twenty-three  to  sixteen.3 
In  the  house  the  whigs,  as  they  had  done  before,  tried  to  obtain 
a  popular  referendum  on  the  question,  but  failed.  On  the 
same  day,  the  bill  repassed  by  a  vote  of  forty-six  to  forty- 
three. 

The  judiciary  bill  had  far  reaching  effects  on  the  democratic 
party.  McClernand  and  Trumbull  made  the  measure  a  test 
of  party  faith  and  bitterly  denounced  such  men  as  S.  G.  Hicks 
and  A.  C.  Leary  of  Cook  who  voted  against  it.  The  political 
ruin  which  the  measure  indirectly  brought  upon  that  insatiable 
Tammany  politician,  Theophilus  W.  Smith,  is  a  better  story. 
Smith  had  originally  suggested  to  the  democratic  lawyers  the 
flaw  in  the  record  which  they  had  been  able  to  use  to  postpone 
the  decision  of  the  alien  case  till  after  they  had  used  the  alien 
votes  in  the  presidential  election  of  the  same  year.  At  that 
time  he  had  told  the  democrats  that  the  whig  justices  were 
about  to  decide  the  case  on  constitutional  grounds  that  would 
bar  aliens  from  the  right  to  vote.  But  in  February  of  1841  he 
issued  with  the  other  three  justices  a  statement  denying  that 
the  decision  given  out  in  December  differed  from  that  which 
they  had  reached  in  June.  The  various  democratic  leaders 
thereupon  published  their  assertions  that  Smith  had  assured 
them  to  the  contrary  in  June,  and  there  is  no  particular  reason 
to  doubt  their  testimony.  Smith,  who  in  spite  of  his  denial 

3  Illinois  State  Register,  February  12,  1841. 


282  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

probably  had  senatorial  aspirations  in  the  summer  of  1840, 
had  been  disappointed  in  the  election  of  McRoberts  as  sena- 
tor,4 and  his  wrath  against  his  old  associates  was  bitter.  It  was 
reported  a  year  later  that  he  had  engaged  to  fight  a  duel  with 
McClernand.  The  State  Register  declared  that  Smith  was 
planning  to  establish  at  Springfield  a  newspaper,  The  Jefferson- 
ian  Democrat,  ostensibly  democratic  but  whose  true  object  was 
to  wreck  the  party.  The  Register  charged  that  the  paper 
would  profess  democracy  but  advocate  whig  measures  and, 
while  supporting  the  presidential  candidate  of  the  party,  would 
oppose  its  nominee  for  governor.  In  August  of  1842  the 
Register  published  a  long  attack  on  Smith,  accusing  him  of 
heading  a  riot  in  Chicago  during  the  election  of  1840,  of  drunk- 
enness, of  nepotism,  and  of  harassing  the  politicians  who  had 
favored  the  judiciary  bill.  The  Register  which  published  the 
article  and  the  Chicago  Democrat  which  clipped  it  were  made 
defendants  in  libel  suits  by  Smith  on  some  of  the  charges  in 
this  attack.  Smith's  erratic  conduct  led  some  to  believe  that  his 
mind  was  affected.  Under  a  cloud  mostly  of  his  own  raising, 
he  resigned  in  December,  1842,  from  the  supreme  court  and 
ended  his  long  political  career.5 

Similarly  the  judiciary  bill  resulted  in  a  turn  in  the  political 
fortunes  of  another  democratic  politician,  Ebenezer  Peck. 
Peck  was  one  of  the  ablest  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the 
most  abused  of  the  democratic  party  leaders.  The  whigs  were 
never  tired  of  recalling  the  fact  that  while  an  American  citizen 
he  had  gone  to  Canada,  had  become  a  king's  counselor,  and 
had,  if  report  was  true,  done  work  for  the  government  in  the 
suppression  of  revolt  and  discontent  before  he  came  to  Illinois 
about  1835  to  preach  the  pure  doctrine  of  democracy,  conven- 
tional, undefiled,  and  regular.  He  had  done  yeoman  service 
in  the  election  of  1840  and  now  perhaps  was  claiming  his 
reward.  As  a  result,  the  whigs  insinuated,  of  his  conversion 

4  Chicago  American,  September  15,  1840,  February  6,  June  6,  1841;  Illinois 
State  Register,  February  5,  1841;  Alton  Telegraph,  June  26,  1841. 

5  Illinois  State  Register,  March    12,   1841,   August   26,    December   2,    1842; 
Chicago  American,  March  n,  1841;  Chicago  Democrat,  November  30,  1842. 


STATE   POLITICS  283 

to  the  support  of  the  judiciary  bill,  for  which,  however,  he  had 
uniformly  voted,  the  new  supreme  court,  consisting,  beside  the 
former  justices,  of  Sidney  Breese,  Thomas  Ford,  W.  B.  Scates, 
S.  H.  Treat,  and  S.  A.  Douglas,  elected  him  clerk  of  the 
supreme  court  in  the  place  of  J.  M.  Duncan.  There  were  but 
five  justices  present  at  the  election  and  four  of  them  voted  for 
Peck.  Even  many  of  the  democratic  papers  had  nothing  good 
to  say  of  the  appointment  of  the  "  midnight  clerk,"  and  Peck 
with  his  friends  of  the  State  Register  and  the  Springfield  clique 
found  enemies  ready  to  assail  them  on  all  sides.6 

Notable  among  the  enemies  whom  the  Springfield  clique 
had  to  encounter  was  "  Long  John  "  Wentworth,  editor  of  the 
Chicago  Democrat  and  for  many  years  the  leader  of  his 
party  in  the  city.  He  had  come  to  the  state  to  seek  his 
political  fortune  in  1836,  and  if  Peck  is  to  be  believed  had 
begun  his  career  with  Peck's  financial  support  and  patronage. 
Peck  professed  a  very  poor  opinion  of  him;  if  it  was  real,  like 
many  others  he  understood  Wentworth's  political  ability  too 
late.  Throughout  1842  Wentworth  with  the  Ottawa  Free 
Trader  and  Carrolton  Advocate,  waged  open  war  on  Peck, 
the  Register,  and  the  clique.  For  a  time  he  hoped  to  secure 
in  the  legislature  the  defeat  of  Walters  for  public  printer.  In 
the  legislature  the  clique  was  triumphant  in  the  elections  of 
1842-1843.  It  defeated  R.  M.  Young  for  senator,  Walters 
alleging  that  he  had  Tyler  leanings  and  was  of  doubtful  ortho- 
doxy, and  elected  Sidney  Breese  as  a  result,  it  was  claimed,  of 
a  bargain  by  which  the  latter  had  withdrawn  from  the  guber- 
natorial race  of  i842.7 

Walters  was  elected  public  printer,  and  for  the  three  vacant 
seats  in  the  supreme  court  left  by  the  resignations  of  Ford, 
Breese,  and  Theophilus  W.  Smith  there  were  chosen  Young  in 

6  Sangamo  Journal,  August  7,  1840,  March  19,  26,  1841;  Chicago  American, 
June  27,  July  14,  18,  24,  September  18,  1840,  March  17,  1841 ;  Illinois  State 
Register,  May  7,  July  16,  1841. 

''Alton  Telegraph,  October  i,  December  24,  1842;  Sangamo  Journal,  Novem- 
ber n,  1842;  Illinois  State  Register,  November  4,  1842;  Chicago  Democrat, 
October  5,  19,  November  30,  December  14,  1842;  Belleville  Advocate,  Novem- 
ber 17,  1842. 


284  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  northern  circuit,  James  Semple,  and  J.  M.  Robinson. 
Wentworth  was  much  aggrieved  at  the  placing  of  southern 
men  in  positions  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state,  asserting  that 
the  south  would  not  permit  a  similar  proceeding. 

The  rise  to  political  prominence  of  such  men  as  Wentworth 
had  been  preceded  by  the  elimination  of  the  politicians  of  the 
past  decade.  The  congressional  elections  of  1841  especially 
had  marked  the  end  of  an  era.  Of  the  three  successful  candi- 
dates the  career  of  each  had  run  its  course  with  his  election  in 
this  year.  In  the  looseness  of  their  party  affiliations  they 
typified  the  passing  democratic  regime  in  Illinois.  In  the  first 
district  that  old  political  war  horse  John  Reynolds  had  little 
difficulty  in  beating  Henry  L.  Webb.  Webb  was  a  man  of  little 
ability  and  his  candidacy  was  supported  by  the  Alton  Telegraph 
only  after  it  felt  assured  that  no  stronger  whig  could  be  induced 
to  run.  Stephen  R.  Rowan  had  offered  himself  as  a  kind  of 
independent  candidate  appealing  especially  to  whig  votes. 
Reynolds  attacked  him  in  spite  of  his  three  votes  for  Jackson 
and  two  for  Van  Buren  as  being  for  a  bank,  distribution,  and 
the  repeal  of  the  subtreasury.  The  Alton  Telegraph  on  the 
other  side  refused  to  consider  Rowan's  professions  genuine  in 
view  of  his  political  past;  and  finally,  after  in  vain  trying  to 
bring  Reynolds'  blunders  as  financial  agent  for  the  state  into 
the  campaign,  he  did  actually  withdraw  in  favor  of  Webb.  On 
the  day  of  election  Reynolds  received  8,046  votes  to  4,829  for 
Webb  and  171  for  Rowan.8 

In  the  second  district  Zadoc  Casey  with  a  very  nondescript 
record  in  congress  was  barely  successful  over  Stinson  H.  Ander- 
son, receiving  7,121  votes  to  6,949  for  his  opponent.  Casey 
had  finally  been  read  out  of  the  party  by  the  State  Register 
which  pronounced  him  no  better  than  a  whig,  evidencing  his 
declaration  for  a  United  States  Bank,  his  course  on  the  sub- 
treasury,  and  his  somewhat  underhanded  attempt  to  secure 
the  speakership  of  the  house.  The  whigs  were  disposed  to  give 

8Alton  Telegraph,  April  17,  May  15,  22,  June  14,  July  10,  17,  31,  1841; 
Belleville  Advocate,  April  17,  July  3,  23,  1841 ;  Illinois  State  Register,  May  28, 
1841 ;  Sangamo  Journal,  June  4,  1841. 


STATE   POLITICS  285 

him  support  on  the  ground  assigned  by  the  Sangamo  Journal 
that  he  was  sound  on  at  least  one  whig  measure.9 

In  the  north,  John  T.  Stuart  made  his  last  successful  run 
for  congress.  The  democrats,  according  to  their  opponents, 
made  a  desperate  attempt  to  defeat  him  by  inducing  some  whig 
to  run  against  him.  The  Alton  Telegraph  indeed  felt  it  neces- 
sary to  threaten  R.  F.  Barrett  with  an  exposure  in  case  he 
ventured  to  fulfill  the  desire  of  the  democrats  by  running 
against  Stuart  James  H.  Ralston  opposed  him  as  the  demo- 
cratic candidate.  The  State  Register  reproved  the  Chicago 
Democrat  for  lukewarmness  in  his  behalf,  alleging  that  Went- 
worth  had  opposed  the  holding  of  a  congressional  convention 
in  the  district  and  had  to  the  last  endeavored  to  bring  about 
the  nomination  of  some  favorite  of  his  own.  Wentworth  pro- 
fessed to  believe  that  anyone  of  half  a  dozen  men  might  have 
successfully  run  against  Stuart  and  concluded  that  it  might  have 
been  better  after  all  to  have  held  a  convention.  At  an  earlier 
time,  Thomas  Ford  had  been  considered  as  a  possible  candi- 
date in  the  district.  Stuart's  victory  was  not  imposing,  for  he 
received  but  21,698  votes  as  against  19,553  f°r  Ralston  and 
470  for  Frederick  Collins.10 

Before  the  congressional  race  was  over,  the  contest  for  the 
governorship  had  begun.  At  the  end  of  1840  O.  H.  Fellows, 
Edwards,  Lincoln,  Browning,  Eddy,  William  Fithian,  W.  F. 
Thornton,  and  Joseph  Duncan  were  all  mentioned  for  the  whig 
nomination.  At  the  meeting  of  the  legislature,  however,  the 
whig  members  reached  a  practical  conclusion  to  run  Duncan 
on  his  past  record  on  the  bank,  internal  improvements,  and  the 
canal.  The  question  whether  a  state  convention  was  necessary 
to  reach  an  agreement  as  to  the  candidate,  or  whether  the  old 
method  of  compromise  and  of  bringing  influence  to  bear  to 
induce  rival  candidates  to  withdraw  might  not  be  successfully 

9  Illinois  State  Register,  June  u,  July  9,  23,  November  12,  1841;  Sangamo 
Journal,  May  21,  August  20,  1841. 

l°Alton  Telegraph,  June  19,  1841;  Sangamo  Journal,  May  7,  June  4,  August 
20,  1841;  Chicago  American,  January  29,  1841;  Illinois  State  Register,  August 
13,  1841;  Chicago  Democrat,  September  n,  1841. 


286  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

applied,  arose  as  soon  as  it  appeared  the  party  was  not  unani- 
mous for  him.  The  Peoria  Register  and  the  Chicago  American 
had  favored  the  candidacy  of  Thornton;  and  the  Shawneetown 
Republican  and  the  Kaskaskia  Republican  were  for  William  H. 
Davidson,  a  candidate  who  on  account  of  his  anticanal  record 
was  not  acceptable  to  the  northern  part  of  the  state.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  summer  the  Fulton  Telegraph  suggested  the 
name  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  the  Sangamo  Journal  did  not 
believe  that  Lincoln  desired  the  office,  since  it  would  take  four 
of  the  best  years  of  his  life  from  his  practice  and  he  had  already 
been  noted  for  the  sacrifices  he  had  made  for  party  principles. 
The  whigs  issued  a  call  for  a  convention  to  meet  the  third 
Monday  in  December,  signed  by  J.  F.  Speed,  A.  G.  Henry, 
Lincoln,  E.  D.  Baker,  and  May.  Early  in  November,  David- 
son withdrew  from  the  contest  for  the  nomination,  and  the 
whigs  at  once  entertained  hopes  that  this  move  might  render  a 
convention  unnecessary.  The  dislike  of  southern  Illinois  for 
conventions  was  advanced  as  a  reason  why  it  was  especially 
desirable  to  avoid  holding  one  if  possible.  The  whig  central 
committee  accordingly  withdrew  the  call  for  the  convention, 
the  democratic  papers  insinuating  that  it  was  at  the  command 
of  the  Springfield  junto.11  If  one  can  judge  by  the  later  com- 
ments on  the  campaign  by  such  whigs  as  Lincoln  the  harmony 
in  the  party  in  favor  of  Duncan  was  mainly  on  the  surface. 

While  Duncan  was  being  chosen  by  the  whig  members  of 
the  state  legislature,  Adam  W.  Snyder  was  being  selected  by 
the  democrats.  An  opposition  to  him  developed,  partly  based 
on  the  fact  of  his  uncertain  course  on  the  measures  that  were 
the  tests  of  party  faith  in  1837.  A.  G.  Herndon  wrote  letters 
to  the  State  Register  signed  "A  Slashergaff,"  in  which  Robin- 
son was  in  this  particular  favorably  contrasted  with  Snyder; 
and  in  the  fall  Robinson  was  informally  suggested  as  a  candi- 
date. Then,  too,  there  was  real  hostility  to  Snyder  exhibited, 
so  the  State  Register  claimed,  by  the  Chicago  Democrat  on  the 

11  Chicago  American,  January  13,  1841;  Alton  Telegraph,  February  13, 
July  3,  10,  31,  November  13,  December  n,  1841;  Illinois  State  Register,  February 
19,  1841;  Sangamo  Journal,  October  15,  22,  29,  November  26,  1841. 


STATE   POLITICS  287 

ground  of  his  supposed  attitude  toward  the  canal.  Utterances 
came  emphatically  from  northern  Illinois  that  it  would  support 
no  man  who  was  not  unqualifiedly  in  favor  of  the  completion  of 
the  canal.  Finally  Snyder,  albeit  in  somewhat  uncertain  and 
equivocal  fashion,  declared  in  favor  of  the  canal;  and  as  the 
time  of  the  convention  approached,  opposition  to  him  died 
away.  He  was  nominated  on  the  first  ballot,  receiving  148 
votes  to  1 1  cast  for  M.  K.  Alexander,  who  had  not,  however, 
been  put  in  nomination.  According  to  the  whigs  the  inner  circle 
of  the  democratic  party  had  decided  that  William  A.  Richard- 
son should  be  run  for  lieutenant  governor;  it  took  four  ballots 
in  the  convention,  however,  before  John  Moore  was  finally 
nominated.  The  Quincy  Herald  was  rather  loath  to  accept 
Snyder,  apparently  in  view  of  his  declaration  for  the  canal; 
but  there  was  no  help  for  it.12 

In  Snyder  southern  Illinois  had  imposed  on  the  party  its 
gubernatorial  candidate,  but  the  chances  of  life  and  death  were 
to  render  frustrate  its  advantage.  As  early  as  February  re- 
ports of  Snyder's  serious  illness  began  to  circulate.  By  the  end 
of  April  it  was  known  that  he  was  too  ill  to  take  the  stump  as 
the  democratic  papers  were  demanding,  and  on  May  14  he 
was  dead.  Immediately  the  southern  democrats  began  to 
move  to  secure  the  appointment  of  a  man  from  that  section  as 
his  successor.  Reynolds  was  mentioned,  but  the  telegraph  had 
not  yet  revolutionized  convention  and  nomination  methods, 
and  it  was  doubtful  if  his  assent  to  a  candidacy  for  the  nomi- 
nation could  have  been  obtained  in  time  to  enable  him  to  return 
from  Washington  for  an  effective  campaign.  Even  so,  his 
friends  manufactured  some  support  for  him  in  Scott,  Shelby, 
Williamson,  and  Gallatin  counties. 

The  movement  in  favor  of  Breese  was  much  stronger  than 
that  for  Reynolds  and  developed  much  earlier.  He  was  nomi- 
nated by  a  meeting  at  Vandalia,  and  by  the  Belleville  Advocate 
and  by  the  Illinois  Sentinel.  It  was  said  that  the  whole  of  the 

12  Illinois  State  Register,  July  16,  October  15,  22,  29,  December  17,  29,  31, 
1841;  Alton  Telegraph,  January  22,  1842;  Sangamo  Journal,  November  12, 
December  17,  1841;  Belleville  Advocate,  October  15,  21,  November,  passim. 


288  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

Wabash  country  was  in  favor  of  his  candidacy,  the  W abash 
Republican,  the  Mt.  Carmel  Republican,  and  a  meeting  in 
Effingham  county  all  declaring  for  him.  Breese  expressed  his 
willingness  to  run,  provided  it  was  possible  to  concentrate  the 
approval  of  the  party  by  county  nominations  and  the  support 
of  democratic  papers.  Finally  he  withdrew  in  favor  of  Ford.13 

Meanwhile  northern  Illinois  with  the  assistance  of  the 
State  Register  had  secured  the  acceptance  of  Thomas  Ford  as 
the  candidate  of  the  party,  disregarding  the  claim  of  the  south 
for  a  southern  man.  The  Register  on  May  27  declared  its 
belief  that  Ford  was  as  good  a  candidate  as  could  be  selected 
and  might  as  well  be  accepted  in  view  of  the  fact  that  there 
was  not  time  to  hold  another  convention  and  that  the  consent 
of  Reynolds  could  not  be  obtained  in  time.  The  Chicago 
Democrat  also  favored  Ford's  nomination.  The  Chicago 
American  declared  that  a  meeting  at  Springfield  which  for- 
mally assumed  to  nominate  him  was  a  packed  one,  only  four 
counties  out  of  the  twenty  represented  in  it  lying  below  Van- 
dalia.  In  the  face  of  the  Chicago  Democrat's  denials  it  insisted 
that  the  nomination  of  Ford  had  been  arranged  before  Snyder's 
death  by  a  clique  of  northern  officeholders  and  office  seekers, 
without  allowing  the  southern  part  of  the  state  any  voice  in 
the  matter.14 

As  in  1838,  the  whigs  were  now  to  find  that  their  intro- 
ductory campaign  work  was  almost  worthless.  Snyder's  record 
was  well  known  and  offered  openings  to  attack  from  various 
angles.  Putting  aside  his  supposed  reliance  on  Mormon  votes 
and  his  somewhat  uncertain  attitude  on  the  canal,  his  opponents 
could  say  that  he  had  tried  to  evade  payment  of  a  debt  owed 
to  the  first  state  bank  on  the  plea  that  the  bank  was  unconstitu- 
tional and  hence  could  have  no  existence  sufficient  to  collect 
debts  due  to  it.  His  course  in  congress  in  the  critical  years, 

13  Chicago  American,  February   17,  April  29,   May   n,   23,  June   6,  7,   15, 
18,  July  14,  1842;  Illinois  State  Register,  May  27,  July  8,  1842;  Belleville  Advo- 
cate, May  26,  June  2,  9,  1842. 

14  Illinois   State  Register,   May  27,    1842;    Chicago  American,  June   2,    14, 
30,  1842. 


STATE   POLITICS  289 

1 837-1 839,  could  be  made  to  appear  equivocal  and  had  so  been 
branded  by  such  democrats  as  McRoberts  and  A.  G.  Herndon. 
The  Chicago  American  indeed,  on  April  4,  had  remarked  that 
democrats  of  the  old  school  would  support  Duncan  rather 
than  Snyder.15 

All  efforts  at  collecting  evidence  against  Snyder  had  been 
thrown  away.  The  whigs  had  now  on  short  notice  to  find 
material  with  which  to  assail  Ford,  and  they  made  hard  work 
or  it.  The  best  they  could  do  was  to  denominate  him  a  judge 
who  had  used  his  position  to  make  political  capital.  The  Chi- 
cago Democrat  ran  a  cut  of  a  dolefully  long  face  representing 
Duncan  when  he  heard  that  Ford  had  consented  to  run.  The 
Chicago  American,  which  had  praised  Ford's  efficiency  and 
integrity  as  a  judge  before  it  contemplated  his  entrance  into 
politics,  was  now  compelled  to  have  recourse  to  hints  of  dan- 
gerous ambition  on  his  part.  His  past  as  an  Adams  man  was 
of  course  dragged  out  against  him  with  the  old  charge  of 
circulating  coffin  handbills.  Whig  papers  remarked  with 
great  glee  on  what  they  alleged  were  Ford's  discomfitures  on 
the  stump  at  the  hands  of  Duncan.  They  tried  in  northern 
Illinois  also  to  identify  Duncan  as  the  canal  candidate,  claiming 
that  at  Mt.  Carmel  Ford  had  declared  that  he  was  opposed  to 
involving  the  credit  of  the  state  one  cent  more  for  the  benefit 
of  the  enterprise;  further  that  he  had  repeatedly  tried  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  state  to  represent  Duncan  as  the  canal 
candidate  to  the  latter's  discredit.16 

More  worthy  of  note  was  the  attempt  to  use  against  Ford 
the  widespread  movement  in  northern  Illinois  for  union  with 
the  territory  of  Wisconsin  in  accord  with  the  original  plan  for 
the  division  of  the  northwest  territory.  This  agitation  was 
probably  due  to  despair  at  the  overwhelming  weight  of  debt 
that  the  state  internal  improvement  system  had  apparently 
irrevocably  imposed  on  Illinois.  During  1842,  and  even 

15  Chicago  Democrat,   February   9,   1842;    Chicago   American,  January   n, 
28,  29,  March  2,  April  4,  u,  13,  May  9,  u,  1842. 

16  Chicago  Democrat,  June  8,  1842;  Chicago  American,  June  30,  July  2,  16, 
22,  25,  26,  27,  August  i,  1842;  Illinois  State  Register,  July  29,  1842. 


29o  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

before  that,  meetings  were  held  in  one  after  another  of  the 
northern  counties  involved.  Ogle,  Stephcnson,  Jo  Daviess 
declared  for  the  union  with  Wisconsin  by  overwhelming  major- 
ities; in  Stephenson  it  was  said  to  be  five  hundred  to  one.  In 
1840  there  had  been  in  several  counties  a  movement  for  a  con- 
vention to  consider  sending  delegates  to  sit  in  union  with  the 
people  of  Wisconsin.  In  1842  Governor  Doty  warned  Gov- 
ernor Carlin  against  making  any  selections  of  land  on  what, 
according  to  the  people  of  Wisconsin,  was  the  soil  of  their 
territory  and  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Illinois  only  from  acci- 
dental and  temporary  conditions.  The  fact  that  Ford  in 
southern  Illinois  opposed  annexation  was  used  duly  against 
him  in  the  north  by  the  Chicago  American,  which  professed 
to  believe  that  the  people  of  the  north  would  sooner  vote  for 
an  opponent  like  Duncan  than  for  a  traitor  to  their  interests 
like  Ford.17 

For  the  rest  the  campaign  centered  on  Joseph  Duncan,  as 
was  inevitable  in  view  of  his  long  and  checkered  career  in 
Illinois  politics.  The  whigs  were  able  once  more  to  exhibit 
the  finer  points  of  his  record  —  the  boyish  enthusiasm  of  the 
young  officer  of  seventeen,  the  piety  of  the  mature  man,  the 
long  political  career  in  congress  and  in  the  state,  at  least  out- 
wardly statesmanlike.  On  the  other  hand,  all  the  devious 
things  so  readily  to  be  found  in  the  career  of  any  man  who  has 
striven  to  become  rich  by  means  of  speculation,  were  mercilessly 
pointed  out  by  the  democrats.  Whether  their  case  was  good 
in  all  instances  —  in  many  it  certainly  was  not  —  the  explanation 
of  many  a  shift  and  device  of  such  a  record,  if  not  disgraceful, 
was  sure  to  be  embarrassing.  The  Chicago  Democrat  did  not 
stop  with  advising  Duncan  to  campaign  with  a  plat  of  Illiopolis, 
the  town  site  that  had  once  aspired  to  be  the  capital  of  the  state. 
Discarding  such  stories  as  the  one  that  he  had  extorted  from 
the  people  of  Meredosia  a  part  of  their  town  site  in  return  for 
his  services  to  them  in  congress,  and  that  he  had  negotiated  for 

^Chicago  American,  June  25,  1840,  June  24,  July  9,  18,  19,  23,  28,  1842; 
Sangamo  Journal,  February  4,  1842;  Alton  Telegraph,  June  25,  1842;  Chicago 
Democrat,  March  23,  1840,  August  10,  1842. 


[Plate  owned  by  Illinois  State  Historical  Library] 


STATE   POLITICS  291 

the  location  of  an  internal  improvement  railroad  thither  — 
stories  the  latter  of  which  at  least  is  disproved  by  Duncan's 
assertion  that  in  spite  of  his  opposition  to  the  whole  scheme  of 
internal  improvements,  that  system,  touching  town  after  town 
in  which  he  was  interested,  seemed  almost  designed  to  buy  his 
support  —  still  other  matters  remained.  He  had  certainly 
borrowed  heavily  from  the  State  Bank,  even  though  no  proof 
except  assertion  existed  that  his  borrowing  had  influenced  his 
official  conduct  toward  it.  Finally  there  was  the  matter  of  the 
defalcation  of  his  brother-in-law,  William  J.  Linn,  receiver  at 
Vandalia ;  Duncan  had  been  a  surety  for  Linn,  and  if  Walters 
of  the  State  Register  may  be  believed  —  though  Ford  was 
inclined  to  doubt  the  hypothesis  —  Duncan  had  procured  from 
Linn  for  his  own  security  a  mortgage  on  all  his  property,  leav- 
ing the  other  bondsmen  helpless.  Walters  was  ready  to  avow 
graver  charges  against  Duncan  to  the  effect  that  the  fruits  of 
Linn's  defalcations  had  assisted  in  Duncan's  speculations  in 
Illiopolis  and  Michigan  City.  There  is  far  from  enough  evi- 
dence to  convict  Duncan  of  trickery  or  dishonesty,  but  the 
whole  situation  was  one  that  to  a  man  of  a  delicate  sense  of 
honor  would  have  been  intolerable.18 

Although  the  democrats  were  unsuccessful  in  fixing  upon 
Duncan  the  responsibility  for  the  State  Bank  failure  and  for 
the  collapse  of  the  internal  improvement  system,  so  far  as  the 
bank  was  concerned  they  could  state  truthfully  that  he  had  at 
least  called  a  special  session  of  the  legislature  in.  1837  to 
authorize  its  suspension  and  that  his  alternative  to  the  internal 
improvement  system  —  construction  by  chartered  companies 
to  the  stock  of  which  the  state  should  subscribe  —  might  have 
been  even  more  disastrous  to  the  state  than  the  system  finally 
inaugurated,  since  in  that  case  the  state  would  have  given  up 
any  chance  for  profits.19 

18  Chicago  American,  March  14,  28,  April  26,  June  10,  July  22,  1842;  Illinois 
State  Register,  May  13,  June  17,  July  i,  8,  22,  1842;  Alton  Telegraph,  April  2, 
May  14,  June  n,  1842. 

19  Belleville  Advocate,  May  5,  12,  1842;  Sangamo  Journal,  April   15,  1842; 
Illinois  State  Register,  April  8,  29,  1842;  Chicago  American,  February  19,  April 
7,  May  7,  18,  19,  July  18,  1842. 


292  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Finally  the  democrats  were  prepared  to  take  more  decisive 
positions  on  national  issues  than  their  opponents.  The  whigs 
in  vain  protested  against  having  the  campaign  fought  on  the 
national  issues  rather  than  on  that  of  democratic  misrule  in 
the  state;  in  vain  they  protested  at  having  the  hard  times  so 
evident  within  the  state  contrasted  with  their  promises  in  1840. 
Moreover  Duncan,  not  realizing,  as  indeed  he  never  did  real- 
ize, that  the  school  of  politics  founded  on  faction  and  personal 
influence  in  which  he  had  grown  up  had,  with  the  newer  political 
order,  gone,  never  to  return,  attempted  to  avoid  taking  a  hard 
and  fast  stand  on  national  issues;  in  a  day  when  the  worship  of 
Jackson  had  passed  even  among  the  democrats  he  persisted  in 
representing  himself  as  a  Jackson  man,  thereby  only  causing 
democrats  to  produce  the  caustic  attacks  on  Jackson  from  some 
of  his  messages  as  governor,  and  northern  whigs  to  refuse  to 
support  a  renegade.  After  the  election  indeed  the  whigs 
attempted  to  explain  their  defeat  by  saying  that  the  whig  vote 
had  not  turned  out,  that  in  certain  counties  no  attempt  had  been 
made  to  get  it  out.  This  attitude  is  an  amazing  contrast  to  the 
appeals  for  union  on  party  lines  and  the  warnings  of  the  danger 
of  split  tickets  that  emanated  to  the  democratic  party  from  the 
Chicago  Democrat  and  the  Belleville  Advocate.20 

Evidence  is  not  wanting  to  indicate  that  the  weakness  of 
Duncan's  showing — he  received  but  39,020  votes,  to  46,507 
for  Ford  —  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  party  had  never  fairly 
united  on  him.  The  statement  already  cited21  shows  that  such 
was  the  case  even  among  men  who  called  themselves  whigs  and 
adds  as  one  reason  for  the  lack  of  unity  that  Duncan  had  been 
nominated  by  the  Telegraph  and  Journal  without  consulting  the 
whigs  of  the  northern  part  of  the  state.  This  is  borne  out  in 
the  implied  comment  on  the  conduct  of  the  affair  in  the  mani- 
festo for  party  organization  promulgated  later  by  Lincoln, 

20  Belleville  Advocate,  June  30,   1842,  July   14,   1843;    Chicago   American, 
May  26,  July  14,  25,  26,  August  30,  1842;  Illinois  State  Register,  May  20,  1842; 
Chicago  Democrat,  March  16,  June  8,  August  3,  1842;  Chicago  Daily  Journal, 
January  20,  1845 ;  Sangamo  Journal,  August  12,  1842. 

21  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  January  20,  1845,  and  Alton  Telegraph,  May  13, 
1843. 


STATE   POLITICS  293 

S.  T.  Logan,  and  Blackwell.  Duncan's  answer  was  the  answer 
of  the  man  dwelling  to  the  last  in  the  political  atmosphere  of 
his  youth  in  which  close  party  alignment  had  been  well-nigh  the 
mark  of  the  beast.  Once  again  he  reiterated  the  political  ideas 
of  his  younger  days  as  the  only  means  of  safety  and  honor  for 
the  whigs;  but  to  the  new  practical  politicians  like  Lincoln, 
quick  to  perceive  the  advantage  of  the  democratic  party  dis- 
cipline and  party  unity,  that  course  led  only  to  defeat. 

The  new  complications  introduced  into  state  politics  by  the 
redistricting  of  the  state  in  1843  f°r  tne  seven  congressional 
seats  to  which  it  was  entitled  contributed  still  more  to  bring 
forward  new  men.  Walters  in  the  State  Register  opposed  the 
scheme  of  apportionment  finally  agreed  on,  arguing  that  on 
the  basis  of  the  vote  of  1 840  it  made  three  districts  safely  whig; 
and  he  advocated  the  election  of  congressmen  by  the  state  at 
large  instead  of  by  districts,  arguing  that  such  a  scheme  would 
make  for  party  unity.  Possibly  Walters  foresaw  what  actually 
was  the  result,  that  the  localizing  tendency  in  the  distribution 
of  political  power  was  to  make  it  less  easy  to  exercise  control 
from  the  center.22 

The  democrats  set  about  their  work  in  the  congressional 
districts  eager  for  victory.  In  the  seventh  district,  centering 
at  Springfield  and  strongly  whig,  they  nerved  themselves  with 
the  cry  that  the  district,  formerly  democratic,  had  been  lost 
through  the  breaking  of  the  ranks  in  the  White  movement  of 
1836.  The  democrats  urged  the  use  of  the  convention  system 
as  the  device  which  had  rescued  northern  Illinois  from  the 
whigs  in  1841.  The  main  interest,  however,  lay  in  the  three- 
cornered  struggle  for  the  whig  nomination  between  John  J. 
Hardin,  Edward  D.  Baker,  and  Lincoln.  According  to  the 
State  Register,  in  the  contest  at  the  whig  mass  meeting  at 
Springfield  between  Baker  and  Lincoln,  Baker  polled  his  votes 
early,  obtained  the  lead,  and  then  called  on  Lincoln  to  with- 
draw, which  the  latter  did.  Later  the  Register  declared  that 

22  Illinois  State  Register,  February  3,  March  17,  1843;  Alton  Telegraph, 
January  28,  1842. 


294  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

Sangamo'n  county  was  kept  in  the  whig  column  by  the  manipu- 
lations of  the  whigs  who  kept  careful  lists  of  the  voters,  knew 
how  they  voted,  and  brought  influence  to  bear  accordingly. 
Hardin,  according  to  the  Register,  in  spite  of  the  attempts  of 
the  whigs  of  the  junto  at  Springfield  to  sidetrack  him,  was  the 
candidate  and  won  handily,  polling  6,230  votes  to  James  A. 
McDougall's  5,357-23 

Elsewhere  the  democrats  were  successful.  In  the  fifth  dis- 
trict which  included  the  Military  Tract,  Douglas  defeated 
Orville  H.  Browning  by  a  vote  of  8,641  to  8,180.  In  the 
fourth  or  Chicago  district,  Wentworth  beat  his  opponents  by 
a  comfortable  margin,  polling  7,552  votes  to  5,931  for  Giles 
Spring  and  1,167  f°r  J°hn  Henderson.  In  the  sixth,  north- 
western Illinois,  Hoge  beat  Walker  7,706  votes  to  7,222,  the 
scale  being  tipped  by  the  vote  in  Hancock,  where  Hoge  polled 
2,088  votes  to  Walker's  733.  In  the  third  district  in  eastern 
Illinois  the  democratic  congressional  committee  addressed 
queries  to  the  various  democratic  candidates  as  to  their  views 
and  their  readiness  to  submit  to  a  convention.  Of  the  candi- 
dates answering,  Berry,  Wickliffe  Kitchell,  and  Orlando  B. 
Ficklin  all  showed  themselves  reasonably  orthodox,  though 
Ficklin  was  inclined  to  dodge  the  question  of  the  subtreasury. 
This  apparently  did  not  hinder  his  nomination  on  the  fifth  bal- 
lot. Ficklin  beat  Justin  Harlan  6,425  to  5,528. 

In  the  second  district  McClernand  as  convention  nominee 
beat  Zadoc  Casey  6,364  to  3,629.  Casey  was  still  trying  to 
play  between  whigs  and  democrats,  and  both  expressed  pleasure 
at  his  defeat.  "Zadoc  Casey,"  was  Wentworth's  comment, 
"  the  democrat,  the  whig,  the  conservative,  the  all-things-to-all 
men,  is  now  beaten  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  and  badly 
beaten  too."  24 

In  the  first  district  the  election  was  marked  by  the  beginning 

23  Illinois  State  Register,  March  24,  April  14,  June  9,  16,  August  18,  1843. 

24  Ibid.,  April  28,  May  12,  June  2,  July  14,  21,  1843 ;  Belleville  Advocate, 
April  6,  May  4,  1843.     The  Belleville  Advocate  had  declared,  April  6,  that  it 
believed  the  race  lay  between  Berry,  Forman,  and  Kitchell,  with   French  and 
Ficklin   as  possibilities.     See   also   Chicago   Democrat,  August   23,    1843 ;   Alton 
Telegraph,  August  26,  1843. 


STATE   POLITICS  295 

of  an  open  feud  in  the  democratic  party  that  was  to  last  with 
the  utmost  bitterness  through  three  elections  and  end  in  the 
political  overthrow  of  John  Reynolds,  the  oldest  and  shiftiest 
politician  in  the  state.  John  of  Cahokia  was  a  candidate  for 
renomination,  arguing  to  his  constituents  that,  taken  in  its 
strictest  sense,  the  doctrine  of  rotation  in  office  did  not  compel 
them  to  abandon  a  candidate  who  had  served  them  well.  The 
position  of  parties  as  it  disclosed  itself  in  the  campaign  for  the 
nomination  was  as  follows.  On  one  side  were  Reynolds  and 
Trumbull  who  on  account  of  Trumbull's  difficulty  with  Ford 
were  both  bitterly  hostile  to  the  governor  and  the  so-called 
Springfield  clique.  On  the  other  was  the  triumvirate  of 
Shields,  Koerner,  and  William  H.  Bissell,  all  destined  to 
achieve  prominence  in  national  politics.  There  was  a  warm 
contest  for  delegates  to  the  congressional  district  convention, 
complicated  by  factional  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  proper 
methods  of  apportionment — differences  too  nice  to  dwell  upon 
here,  but  responsible  for  the  turning  of  the  majority  in  a  closely 
divided  convention  of  some  twenty  odd  delegates.  As  a  result 
Reynolds  and  Trumbull,  if  one  accepts  the  account  of  their 
friends,  feeling  that  they  had  no  chance  before  the  convention 
as  it  was  organized,  withdrew  or  declined  to  allow  their  names 
to  be  presented.  Accordingly  on  the  first  ballot,  Robert  Smith 
was  nominated,  receiving  fourteen  votes  to  eleven  for  Shields 
and  two  for  Reynolds.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Shields  was 
apparently  inclined  to  sulk  and  that  the  Repository,  a  sup- 
posedly democratic  newspaper,  kept  up  a  hot  fire  on  Reynolds 
during  the  campaign,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  whigs 
continually  assailed  Smith  as  a  shifty  Yankee  speculator,  the 
latter  was  elected.  The  Alton  Telegraph  attributed  the  result 
to  a  whig  convention  which  had  divided  rather  than  united  the 
party.25 

The  congressmen  elected  in  1843  naturally  came  up  for  a 
reelection  in   1844.     In  most  of  the  districts  there  was  no 

25  Belleville  Advocate,  March  30,  June  8,  29,  1843;  Alton  Telegraph,  July 
15,  August  26,  1843;  Farmers  and  Mechanics  Repository,  July  15,  22,  1843. 


296  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

change.  Baker  in  the  seventh  district  was  nominated  by  a  con- 
vention in  place  of  Hardin  who,  according  to  the  Sangamo 
Journal,  declined  a  reelection.  The  most  interesting  struggle, 
however,  came  in  the  first  district  where  a  second  campaign  in 
the  war  of  John  Reynolds  against  his  foes  was  about  to  open. 
During  the  past  year  Reynolds'  Belleville  Advocate  had  waged 
relentless  war  on  Walters,  Ford,  and  the  clique.  Reynolds 
insisted  that  Smith  had  pledged  himself  in  1843  not  to  be  a 
candidate  for  reelection  and,  after  a  series  of  more  or  less 
veiled  depreciations  of  conventions  and  attacks  on  the  conven- 
tion system,  prepared  to  run  independently.  The  old  party 
quarrels  broke  forth  again.  The  Springfield  Times  was 
declared  by  the  Sangamo  Journal  to  represent  the  southern 
Illinois  end  of  the  party  as  against  Ford  and  the  northern;  and 
along  with  the  Kaskaskla  Republican,  it  took  Reynolds'  side 
against  his  opponents.  The  Belleville  Advocate  declared  that 
the  Register  had  conspired  with  the  Telegraph  and  the  San- 
gamo Journal  to  beat  Reynolds  and  Trumbull  and  to  rally  a 
conservative  party.  The  Register  declared  early  in  January 
that  the  Times  apparently  intended  to  support  Reynolds  and 
the  whigs;  by  July,  however,  the  Belleville  Advocate  was  de- 
manding that  the  Times  keep  out  of  the  congressional  fight 
and  its  attitude  is  impossible  of  diagnosis.26 

Reynolds  meanwhile  struggled  on.  He  repelled  the 
declarations  of  his  opponents  that  he  was  a  whig  insisting  that 
he  was  against  whig  measures  and  only  opposed  assailing  the 
whigs  themselves  with  reproaches.  He  appealed  to  the  voters 
on  the  ground  of  his  long  residence  in  the  state,  claiming  that 
he  was  "  acting  democratic"  before  many  of  his  present  oppo- 
nents were  born.  He  asked  them  if  the  new  settlers  should  be 
permitted  to  drive  off  the  old  settlers,  and  why,  other  things 
being  equal,  an  old  resident  should  not  be  preferred,  once  more 
bringing  to  notice  that  he  had  been  a  "ranger"  thirty  years 
before.  All  was  to  no  purpose.  The  attacks  of  his  opponents 

26  Chicago  Democrat,  May  28,  1845;  Belleville  Advocate,  January  i,  18,  25, 
February  i,  April  25,  May  2,  9,  16,  30,  June  6,  July  4,  1844;  Illinois  State 
Register,  December  8,  1843;  Sangamo  Journal,  February  6,  May  16,  1844. 


STATE   POLITICS  297 

and  especially  those  of  Koerner  and  W.  C.  Kinney  in  the  St. 
Clair  Banner  did  not  relax.  Reynolds  after  a  long  life  of 
political  shiftiness  was  at  last  pinned  squarely  on  the  point  of 
party  organization.  He  had  run  his  last  political  race.  He 
did  not  poll  even  five  thousand  votes  out  of  13,091  cast;  and 
he  carried  only  one  county,  Pulaski.27 

Convention  or  no  convention,  Reynolds'  day  was  done.  In 
1846  there  was  a  new  dispute  as  to  the  apportionment  in  a  dis- 
trict convention,  which  after  Smith's  name  had  been  withdrawn 
nominated  Reynolds'  ally,  TrumBull,  for  congress.  Smith  was 
not  to  be  beaten,  however,  as  he  had  beaten  Reynolds.  County 
meetings  began  to  call  on  him  to  run  and  to  repudiate  Trum- 
bull.  Smith  finally  issued  an  address  to  his  constituents  in  a 
somewhat  humble  tone  appealing  to  them  not  to  stigmatize 
him  alone  among  the  delegation  and  pointing  out  his  oppor- 
tunities to  be  of  more  service  than  a  new  member.  The  whigs 
when  he  declared  his  intention  to  run  independently  decided 
apparently  to  support  him,  the  Journal  advising  it,  and  the 
Telegraph  favoring  him  decidedly  in  its  news  columns.  Prob- 
ably this  was  the  result  of  a  belief  that  Smith  was  not  so 
extreme  in  his  views  as  Trumbull,  though  as  the  Advocate 
suggested,  it  may  have  been  the  result  of  a  bargain.  The  State 
Register  was  inclined  at  this  time  to  take  Trumbull's  side  and 
to  plead  for  party  regularity;  the  fact  that  the  Advocate 
claimed  that  Ford  and  the  clique  were  supporting  Trumbull 
may  indicate  that  the  Register  was  no  longer  with  the  so-called 
clique.  Smith  beat  Trumbull  by  two  thousand  votes.28 

The  next  victim  to  the  partisanship  that  obtained  in  the 
democratic  politics  in  Illinois  was  Walters  of  the  State  Regis- 
ter, who  with  that  more  or  less  vague  body  defined  as  the 
"  Springfield  clique "  challenged  the  congressional  delegation 
and  went  down  in  the  fight.  The  congressional  delegation  in 
the  matter  of  patronage  speedily  reached  the  habit  of  acting 

27  Belleville  Advocate,  June  6,  27,  August  i,  8,  1844. 

28 Alton  Telegraph,  May  2,  June  13,  27,  July  25,  1846;  Belleville  Advocate, 
May  7,  14,  28,  June  18,  25,  July  2,  9,  16,  29,  1846;  Sangamo  Journal,  July  16, 
1846;  Illinois  State  Register,  May  8,  June  19,  July  17,  1846. 


298  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

together.  According  to  Wentworth  in  1845  tne  Springfield 
group,  including  members  of  the  legislature  then  in  session, 
had  apportioned  the  good  things  among  themselves  and  had 
then  written  letters  of  recommendation  for  applicants  with  the 
greatest  freedom.  According  to  him,  further,  the  men  at 
Springfield  in  order  to  facilitate  the  multiplication  of  promises 
were  in  the  habit  of  sending  the  letter  of  recommendation  to 
the  applicant  instead  of  the  president.  Finally  President  Polk 
insisted  that  the  congressional  delegation  should  agree  on  all 
offices  before  appointments  were  made.  The  State  Register 
began  a  war  on  the  delegation  pointing  out  the  danger  of  the 
concentration  of  political  power  in  their  hands  in  case  the  rule 
laid  down  by  Polk  were  to  be  established.  In  part  this  discord 
arose  over  a  new  attempt,  in  the  last  session  of  the  legislature, 
by  John  S.  Zieber,  Louis  M.  Booth  of  the  Qulncy  Herald,  and 
Kinney  to  oust  Walters  from  the  public  printing  office.  The 
Register  was  speedily  at  swords'  points  with  several  of  the  most 
prominent  democratic  papers  of  the  state.  The  Quincy  Her- 
ald, the  St.  Clair  Banner,  the  Randolph  County  Record,  Peoria 
Free  Press,  Illinois  Gazette,  Warsaw  Signal,  and  Chicago 
Democrat  all  set  upon  it.  At  Chicago,  Walters  could  count 
on  help  against  Wentworth  from  the  Chicago  Democrat  Advo- 
cate, apparently  controlled  by  I.  N.  Arnold  who  was  aggrieved 
at  the  appointment  of  Mark  Skinner  as  United  States  district 
attorney  for  Illinois.  In  the  war  on  the  congressmen,  the 
Register  had  at  first  tried  to  draw  Douglas  in  against  them; 
but  Douglas  sharply  declined  to  be  separated  from  his  col- 
leagues and  repelled  the  attacks  against  their  efficiency  and 
ability,  notably  for  the  loss  of  the  school  fund,  which  the  Regis- 
ter was  sending  out  against  them.  Walters  was  soon  as  bitter 
against  Douglas  as  he  had  been  against  the  others.29 

The  whigs  insinuated  their  belief  that  the  attempt  to  set 
Douglas  against  the  rest  of  the  delegation  was  an  attempt  to 

29  Chicago  Democrat,  January  i,  8,  22,  February  19,  April  2,  September  24, 
1845;  Illinois  State  Register,  April  4,  May  2,  June  6,  July  ir,  18,  August  9,  22, 
November  7,  1845;  Sangamo  Journal,  April  10,  August  21,  1845;  Alton  Tele- 
graph, January  18,  May  10,  1845;  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  January  19,  1846. 


STATE   POLITICS  299 

weaken  him  so  that  he  might  be  out  of  Ford's  way  in  the  race 
for  the  senate.  Ford  denied  any  such  attempt,  however,  and 
the  Chicago  Democrat  and  other  papers  disclaimed  any  inten- 
tion of  being  so  easily  lured  into  a  quarrel  with  Ford.  The 
situation  cleared  up  slowly.  In  the  fall  the  attack  on  Ford  was 
continued  by  the  Jackson  Standard,  edited  at  Jacksonville  by 
J.  S.  Roberts,  which  accused  Ford  of  using  his  office  to  elevate 
himself  to  the  senate  and  to  secure  a  governor  favorable  to 
his  pretensions.  Ford  came  out  with  an  absolute  denial,  calling 
on  his  appointees  to  state  if  there  had  been  a  bargain  in  the  case 
of  any  one  of  them.  This  attack  as  it  seemed  to  the  State 
Register  was  the  result  of  a  bargain  between  Douglas,  McCler- 
nand,  and  Wentworth  by  which  the  two  men  first  named  were 
to  be  senators  in  order,  Trumbull,  governor,  as  an  especial 
rebuke  to  Ford,  and  Lewis  W.  Ross  of  Fulton,  lieutenant 
governor,  to  clear  Richardson's  way  toward  Douglas'  seat  in 
congress.  In  January  the  Register  was  compelled  to  admit 
that  in  view  of  a  letter  from  Douglas  to  E.  D.  Taylor  the 
charge  of  a  bargain  was  groundless.30 

Walters'  career  as  a  free  lance  had  impaired  the  influence 
of  his  paper  and  ruined  him  politically.  The  winter  had  seen 
more  bickering  on  his  part  with  the  delegation.31  George  R. 
Weber,  his  junior  partner  on  the  Register,  had  withdrawn 
in  the  preceding  August.  In  June,  1846,  Charles  H.  Lanphier 
assumed  the  duties  of  editor,  Walters  having  volunteered  for 
the  Mexican  War.  A  month  later  Walters  died  at  St.  Louis 
at  the  age  of  forty-four.  His  career  was  typical  of  many  an 
Illinois  journalist.  He  had  been  in  his  youth  editor  of  the 
IV 'timing  tonian  in  Delaware,  had  then  been  one  of  Duff  Green's 
subordinates  in  Washington,  and  had  taken  part  in  a  kind 
of  labor  demonstration  against  Green,  whom  he  afterwards 
claimed  was  in  a  plot  to  control  the  newspapers  of  the  country 
financially,  running  them  by  his  apprentices.  He  had  then  come 

30  Chicago  Democrat,  July  9,  23,  October  8,  21,  1845;  Alton  Telegraph,  July 
19,  October  18,  1845;  Sangamo  Journal,  August  7,  1845;  Illinois  State  Register, 
October  17,  31,  November  7,  1845,  January  23,  1846. 

31  Illinois  State  Register,  February  20,  March  13,  20,  1846. 


300  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

to  Illinois  where  he  had  preached  democratic  principles  with 
some  ability;  he  had  become  hopelessly  involved  financially  by 
his  liability  on  Linn's  bond,  had  intrigued  for  the  public  print- 
ing, played  partisan  politics,  and  bandied  back  and  forth  coarse 
accusations  of  drunkenness  with  his  rival,  Simeon  Francis  of 
the  Sangamo  Journal.  There  was  nothing  extraordinary  in 
the  course  of  his  life  and  just  enough  promise  of  something 
better  in  it  to  lend  a  touch  of  pathos  to  its  end. 

Another  political  journalist  affords  an  instructive  contrast 
with  Walters.  The  early  part  of  John  Wentworth's  career  has 
already  been  sketched.  It  was,  and  continued  to  be,  a  series 
of  quarrels  with  political  rivals  in  the  Chicago  district  in  which 
Wentworth  demonstrated  an  amazing  capacity  at  retaining 
an  unbreakable  hold  on  the  voters.  In  the  campaign  of  1846 
Wentworth  had  against  him  in  Lake  county  a  paper  edited  by 
Aristides  B.  Wynkoop,  a  democrat  with  abolitionist  tendencies, 
which  did  not  belie  its  name.  The  Little  Fort  Porcupine  began 
a  series  of  attacks  on  the  democratic  clique  in  Lake  county 
allied  with  and  dependent  on  Wentworth,  accusing  them  of 
spoils  politics,  and  malfeasance  in  office.  Its  animus  against 
Wentworth  was  open  and  apparent  in  every  number,  but  the 
Democrat  gave  it  comparatively  little  attention.  The  Chicago 
Journal,  June  13,  1846,  remarked  that  so  long  as  it  advanced 
Wentworth's  financial  interests  in  Little  Fort  he  cared  little 
for  its  attacks.32 

Specifically,  however,  it  assailed  Wentworth  with  a  number 
of  charges  which  the  whig  papers  were  not  slow  to  use  against 
him.  It  called  him  to  account  for  alleged  shortcomings  in 
securing  good  things  for  the  district  in  the  way  of  harbor 
improvements,  his  vote  for  Texas  without  an  equivalent  for 
the  north,  and  held  him  up  to  execration  as  a  laughingstock  in 
Washington  and  an  intriguer  at  home.  Wentworth  was  accused 
not  merely  of  such  venial  sins  in  pursuit  of  votes  as  riding 
the  circuit  under  pretense  of  practicing  law  to  keep  his  fences 

32  Little  Fort  Porcupine,  1845,  1846,  passim;  Chicago  Democrat,  June  30, 
July  28,  1846. 


STATE   POLITICS  301 

in  repair,  of  flooding  the  district  with  franked  documents,  and 
of  using  the  Chicago  Democrat  to  puff  him  shamelessly,  but 
also  of  prowling  around  the  haunts  of  vice  and  immorality. 
He  was  accused  of  using  conventions  to  cement  his  power, 
packing  them  with  officeholders  and  then  preaching  party  regu- 
larity. He  was  accused  even  of  the  worse  political  vice  of 
disloyalty,  of  beating  men  for  appointments  and  then  none  the 
less  asking  and  securing  their  political  support.33  The  political 
ghosts  of  Peck,  of  Leary,  of  Murphy,  of  Arnold,  all  sometime 
prominent  in  the  district,  were  raised  to  accuse  him  of  ingrati- 
tude. Such  attacks  recurred  in  campaign  after  campaign 
against  the  editor  of  the  Democrat. 

In  return  Wentworth  usually  warned  his  supporters  to 
beware  of  split  tickets  and  of  alleged  democratic  tickets  from 
which  his  name  had  been  omitted.  He  retailed  as  former  roor- 
backs told  against  him  that  he  had  fallen  from  his  horse  and 
been  killed  and  that  while  still  unmarried  he  beat  his  wife  and 
child.  He  made  merry  about  alleged  democratic  handbills 
appearing  against  him.34  Hard  hitting,  astute,  sometimes 
cynically  frank,  he  held  absolute  sway  in  the  northern  district. 

In  spite  of  the  acrimonious  prelude,  the  gubernatorial  con- 
test of  1846  was  a  comparatively  quiet  affair.  Among  the 
democrats  there  were  numerous  pronouncements  against  banks 
without  any  very  obvious  statements  to  the  contrary  for  them 
to  combat.  Trumbull,  Scates,  Cavarly,  and  McConnell  were 
all  proposed  for  the  office,  but  finally  the  choice  of  the  conven- 
tion fell  on'Augustus  C.  French,  an  eastern  Illinois  man.  The 
gossip  had  been  that  the  Springfield  clique  had  favored  Cal- 
houn  as  against  Trumbull,  and  the  nomination  of  French  was 
represented  as  a  compromise  of  good  omen  for  the  party.85 

The  only  hope  of  the  whigs  had  been  apparently  that 
Hardin,  or  possibly  Lincoln,  might  be  willing  to  run  for  gov« 

33  Chicago  Dally  Journal,  March  4,  6,  8,  13,  May  5,  June  23,  July  29,  30, 
1846. 

34  Chicago  Democrat,  July  28,  August  4,  September  8,  1846. 

35  Illinois  State  Register,  August  22,  October  3,  September  26,  1845,  January 
30,1846;  Belleville  Advocate,  March  14,   1846;  Chicago  Dally  Journal,  Decem- 
ber 19,  1845,  January  29,  1846. 


302  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

ernor.  When  Hardin  declined  they  were  generally  unenthu- 
siastic.  In  April  the  Telegraph  talked  for  a  while  of  the  need 
of  a  close  and  compact  whig  organization,  recognizing  that 
organization  and  not  numbers  was  the  true  strength  of  the 
democrats;  and  it  urged  a  state  convention;  on  a  convention 
the  Sangamo  Journal  was  not  inclined  to  be  enthusiastic,  hoping 
the  whigs  could  agree  without  one.  The  Telegraph  was 
inclined  to  think  the  convention  unimportant  providing  that 
unity  in  that  or  in  some  other  way  was  assured,  even  the  sug- 
gestion was  put  forward  by  the  Sangamo  Journal  that  a  nomi- 
nation be  made  by  a  central  committee  on  the  basis  of  letters 
written  to  it  by  whigs.  George  T.  M.  Davis  of  the  Telegraph, 
disagreed  with  this  policy  of  his  senior  editor,  claiming  that  at 
Springfield  in  the  winter  the  whigs  had  concluded  to  run  no 
one  and  to  let  the  democrats  for  want  of  opposition  quarrel 
among  themselves.  Finally  when  the  nominations  were  made 
by  a  meeting  at  Peoria,  the  Chicago  Journal  put  them  at  the 
head  of  its  columns  but  refused  to  consider  their  strength  or 
failure  any  criterion  of  the  democratic  strength  in  the  state. 
The  State  Register  insinuated  that  the  whigs  were  only  nomi- 
nating to  keep  up  the  organization.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  slurs  at  French  as  "Mrs.  French's  husband,"  a  medi- 
ocre man  with  a  taste  for  drawing  the  long  bow  in  accounts 
of  his  exploits,  the  whigs  did  but  little.36  At  the  close  of  the 
period  of  the  first  constitution  the  party  that  still  called  itself 
democratic  controlled  Illinois. 

36  Belleville  Advocate,  June  31,  1846;  Alton  Telegraph,  July  26,  August  9, 
December  27,  1845,  April  18,  25,  May  2,  9,  16,  30,  1846;  Sangamo  Journal, 
November  6,  1845,  April  23,  1846;  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  March  24,  December 
13,  1845,  April  20,  July  15,  1846;  Illinois  State  Register,  June  16,  1846. 


XVI.     STATE  AND  PRIVATE  BANKING, 
1830-1845 

IN  SPITE  of  the  fiasco  of  the  first  State  Bank  ten  years  had 
not  passed  since  that  institution  had  reached  the  height  of 
its  career  when  a  new  State  Bank  was  created  which  had  a 
history  at  least  as  unfortunate  as  that  of  the  old  bank.  The 
state's  second  venture  into  the  field  of  banking,  like  everything 
else  in  the  political  and  economic  life  of  the  state  in  the  period, 
was  in  the  end  connected  intimately  with  internal  improve- 
ment plans,  although  for  years  before  the  adoption  of  the 
internal  improvement  system,  the  establishment  of  a  new  State 
Bank  had  been  urged  on  grounds  both  financial  and  political. 
The  beginnings  of  agitation  for  a  State  Bank  may  be 
traced  to  the  belief  that  since  the  nation  by  the  mouth  of 
Andrew  Jackson  had  rejected  a  national  bank,  state  banks 
must  arise  to  supply  its  place.  In  1830-1831  and  1832-1833 
bills  for  the  establishment  of  a  bank  had  been  introduced  into 
the  general  assembly.  In  the  winter  of  1832  a  movement  in 
Springfield  for  a  bank  to  be  run  on  capital  borrowed  by  the 
state  was  sanctioned  by  so  good  a  Jackson  man  as  May;  and 
in  the  senate  of  that  year,  when  the  bank  bill  was  defeated  by 
one  vote,  such  democrats  as  Ewing,  John  Grammar,  and  Will 
voted  in  the  affirmative.1  In  the  fall  of  1833  the  Illinois  State 
Register  suggested  a  bank  with  capital  to  be  paid  in  specie  so 
as  to  escape  dependence  upon  the  note  issues  of  banks  of 
other  states.  The  Alton  Spectator  believed,  however,  that 
before  granting  a  charter  it  was  necessary  to  allay  the  popular 
prejudices  attaching  to  the  idea  of  a  State  Bank.  On  March 
1 8,  1834,  it  pronounced  against  a  State  Bank.  The  Alton 
American  had  on  the  day  before  declared  for  the  bank  on  the 

1  Sangamo  Journal,  November  23,  1832,  February  9,   1833;  Senate  Journal, 
1832-1833,  i  session,  579. 

303 


304  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

ground  of  its  possible  assistance  to  business.  The  Sangamo 
Journal  declared  that  the  winding  up  of  affairs  of  the  United 
States  Bank  made  necessary  the  establishment  of  an  institution 
to  supply  currency  in  the  place  of  that  withdrawn  from  circu- 
lation, if  the  state  were  not  to  be  overrun  with  the  paper  of 
other  states.2 

The  session  of  1834-1835  saw  the  inauguration  of  the  new 
bank.  W.  L.  D.  Ewing,  acting  governor  for  the  last  part  of 
Reynold's  term,  in  his  message  to  the  legislature  advocated  a 
bank  for  the  reason  given  by  the  Sangamo  Journal;  but  Dun- 
can, the  new  governor,  was  disposed  to  deprecate  such  a 
measure.  The  legislature  set  about  putting  the  suggestions 
into  law.  By  a  margin  of  one  vote  in  the  house  a  measure  was 
passed  creating  a  bank  with  a  capital  of  $1,500,000,  of  which 
$100,000  might  be  subscribed  by  the  state  and  the  remainder 
by  individuals,  preference  over  nonresidents  and  corpora- 
tions being  given  to  residents  and  small  subscribers.  The  act 
required  ten  per  cent  of  the  capital  to  be  paid  in  specie.  When 
$250,000  in  specie  had  been  obtained  from  payments  for  stock 
or  by  borrowing,  the  bank  was  authorized  to  begin  business. 
There  were  provisions  which  required  the  bank  to  liquidate, 
if  for  a  period  of  ten  days  it  refused  to  pay  specie  for  its  notes, 
and  which  imposed  a  ten  per  cent  penalty  for  the  time  during 
which  payment  was  deferred.3 

The  stock  of  the  new  bank  being  several  times  oversub- 
scribed, the  commissioners  in  charge  of  the  subscription  lists 
met  in  May  to  prorate  the  stock.  Governor  Ford  relates 
that  in  spite  of  precaution  taken  to  prevent  such  a  contin- 
gency, Godfrey,  Gilman  and  Company,  John  Tillson,  Thomas 
Mather,  T.  W.  Smith,  and  Samuel  Wiggins  succeeded  in  plac- 
ing large  blocks  of  the  stock  in  the  hands  of  eastern  capitalists 
by  using  the  names  of  Illinois  citizens  on  subscription  blanks 
for  small  amounts.  In  the  meeting  there  was  a  sharp  contest 

2  Illinois  State  Register,  November  30,  1833;  Illinois  Advocate,  December 
30,  1833;  Alton  Spectator,  December  7,  1833;  Alton  American,  April  4,  1834; 
Sangamo  Journal,  December  13,  1834. 

3  House  Journal,  1834-1835,  i  session,  14-15,  33,  510. 


STATE   AND   PRIVATE   BANKING       305 

whether  or  not  an  attempt  should  be  made  to  go  behind  the 
records  of  the  subscription  books.  Finally,  after  much  jockey- 
ing and  maneuvering  for  position  they  decided  by  a  vote  of 
eight  to  seven  not  to  go  behind  the  books.  Benjamin  Godfrey, 
W.  S.  Gilman,  Mather,  and  Tillson  voted  in  the  majority. 
Subscriptions  standing  in  the  names  of  foreigners  and  corpora- 
tions were  stricken  off  the  list,  and  subscriptions  of  residents 
were  cut  to  one  thousand  dollars  and  then  prorated.  Ford 
seems  incorrectly  to  ascribe  a  share  in  these  proceedings  to 
Smith.  When  finally  the  bank  was  organized,  Griggs,  Weld 
and  Company,  Wiggins,  Gilman,  and  M.  J.  Williams  owned 
7,539  shares,  and  eleven  other  persons  3,948  shares,  an  over- 
whelming majority  of  the  stock. 

The  bank  opened  under  the  presidency  of  Mather;  and, 
beside  the  head  office  at  Springfield,  branches  were  established 
at  Vandalia,  Galena,  Jacksonville,  Alton,  and  Chicago.  Under 
the  laws  of  1836  additional  branches  were  opened  at  Danville, 
Quincy,  Belleville,  and-  Mt.  Carmel.  In  1836,  in  return  for 
a  supplementary  act  which  interpreted  a  provision  in  the  first 
charter  allowing  an  issue  of  an  additional  million  of  capital 
by  the  bank  and  extended  to  sixty  days  the  term  for  which  the 
bank  could  suspend  payment  on  notes  without  invalidating  its 
charter,  the  bank  agreed  to  take  over  the  payment  of  the 
famous  Wiggins'  loan.  A  large  block  of  the  additional  shares 
issued  came  into  Wiggins'  hands.4 

The  State  Bank  meanwhile  had  been  maneuvering  to  be 
chosen  as  United  States  depository,  but  it  had  encountered 
political  difficulties.  The  sponsors  for  the  bank  had  sought  in 
vain  to  induce  Reuben  M.  Whitney,  the  special  examiner  of 
depositories,  to  use  his  influence  in  their  behalf.  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  Lev!  Woodbury  hesitated.  He  was  informed 
that  the  bank  was  in  the  control  of  whigs  and  that  to  recognize 
it  would  give  a  check  to  the  loyal  friends  of  the  administration 
in  Illinois.  Woodbury  finally  indicated  his  unfavorable  atti- 

4  Dowrie,  Development  of  Banking  in  Illinois,  65-67,  71 ;  Illinois  Advocate, 
June  10,  1835. 


306  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

tude  toward  the  application,  specifying  as  reasons  for  the 
unfair  allotment  of  stock  the  alleged  unconstitutionally  of  the 
bank  as  being  a  State  Bank  only  in  name  and  its  custom  of  not 
redeeming  the  notes  of  one  branch  at  every  other.5  In  all 
these  charges  there  was  much  of  truth. 

Meanwhile  1837,  the  year  of  the  internal  improvement 
mania,  drew  on.  In  view  of  the  liberal  dividends  paid  by  the 
State  Bank  it  appeared  to  the  advocates  of  internal  improve- 
ment an  ideal  means  of  financing  their  ambitious  project  without 
subjecting  themselves  to  the  unpopularity  sure  to  arise  from 
an  application  of  increased  taxation.  Accordingly  the  stock 
of  the  State  Bank  was  increased  by  a  $2,000,000  state  sub- 
scription, which  was  to  be  paid  for  by  an  issue  of  state  bonds 
at  not  less  than  par.  Of  these  enough  were  to  be  sold  to  make 
the  necessary  cash  payment  on  the  stock.  The  state  placed 
five  additional  directors  of  its  own  on  the  board,  which  hith- 
erto had  consisted  of  nine  members.6 

Meanwhile  a  similar  subscription  for  a  million  was  made 
to  the  old  Bank  of  Illinois  at  Shawneetown,  which  had  been 
revived  in  1835.  The  bank  had  remained  quiescent  since  its 
suspension  in  1823,  had  started  into  life  again  in  1834,  and  in 
1835  had  had  its  charter  extended  to  1857.  A  committee  in 
1837  reported  that  the  bank  was  well  managed  and  that  prac- 
tically all  its  notes  had  been  redeemed  when  it  had  ceased  to 
discount  in  1822-1823.  It  was  in  1837  doing  a  legitimate 
business  in  buying  bills  of  exchange  on  New  Orleans  issued 
against  shipments  of  produce  at  one  per  cent  discount  and  in 
selling  exchange  on  Philadelphia  and  New  Orleans  at  one  per 
cent  premium.7 

The  panic  of  1837,  which  had  such  disastrous  effects  on 
the  internal  improvement  system,  began  by  putting  into  dif- 
ficulties the  banks  upon  which  the  system  was  based.  Late  in 

5  Dowrie,  Development  of  Banking  in  Illinois,  72-73,  75  -passim;  Sangamo 
Journal,  January  23,  1836. 

GLaivs  of  1837,  p.  1 8. 

7  Dowrie,  Development  of  Banking  in  Illinois,  64;  Senate  Journal,  1836- 
1837,  i  session,  356. 


STATE   AND   PRIVATE   BANKING       307 

May  the  banks  suspended  payments.  Governor  Duncan  was 
persuaded  to  call  a  special  session  of  the  assembly  to  legalize 
the  suspension  of  payments  by  the  State  Bank  and  to  prevent 
the  consequent  forfeiture  of  its  charter.  This  the  assembly 
proceeded  to  do  with  certain  limitations  upon  the  business 
which  the  bank  might  perform  during  the  period  of  suspen- 
sion. It  provided  for  relief  to  the  bank's  debtors  during  the 
time  of  suspension  and  limited  to  the  amount  of  the  capital 
paid  in  the  amount  of  notes  that  the  bank  might  issue.  Finally, 
it  prohibited  dividends  until  payments  were  resumed.8 

Partly  perhaps  as  a  result  of  local  dissatisfaction  with  the 
banks'  curtailment,  partly  with  a  view  to  the  national  political 
situation,  almost  immediately  on  the  suspension  of  payments 
a  hostility  to  all  banks  became  vocal  in  the  democratic  party. 
For  instance,  some  ten  votes  in  the  senate  were  cast  against 
the  bank's  suspension  measure.  The  Sangamo  Journal,  which 
justified  the  suspension  on  account  of  the  financial  relations 
of  state  and  banks,  was  quick  to  mark  this  hostility  and  to  call 
attention  to  its  inconsistency  with  the  democrats'  responsibility 
for  the  creation  and  use  of  the  banks;  it  proclaimed  that  the 
democrats  were  now  declaring  for  a  metallic  currency.  Shields 
used  similar  arguments  against  the  antibank  men  in  the  demo- 
cratic party,  declaring  that  the  men  who  had  formerly  employed 
the  bank  stock  speculation  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  taxation 
for  internal  improvements  were  now  claiming  to  be  opposed 
to  the  bank  on  principle.  He  urged  the  necessity  of  giving 
the  bank  time  in  order  to  avoid  involving  the  state  and  its 
citizens  in  ruin  and  declared  that  the  ultras  in  his  party  were 
playing  into  the  hands  of  the  whigs.  "The  ultra  democrats," 
he  said,  "are  opposed  to  state  institutions,  they  want  specie. 
The  ultra  whigs  are  opposed  to  state  institutions,  they  want 
a  National  Bank."  9 

The  opposition  to  the  bank  in  the  democratic  party  was 
not  convinced.  Semple,  for  instance,  who  claimed  he  had 

8  2  Laius  of  1837,  p.  6. 

9  Senate  Journal,  1837,  special  session,  71;  Illinois  State  Register,  August 
4, 


3o8  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

always  been  opposed  to  banking  institutions  denounced  banks 
as  enabling  the  rich  to  grow  richer  by  issuing  three  dollars  in 
notes  for  one  in  specie  and  by  enjoying  corporate  privileges. 
Jackson,  he  said,  whatever  might  be  said  or  inferred  to  the 
contrary,  had  never  recommended  the  establishment  of  a  bank. 
The  Sangamo  Journal,  October  28,  declared  its  belief  that 
Kinney,  Reynolds,  Ewing,  Shields,  and  Wyatt  were  against 
the  locofoco  doctrine  of  the  Chicago  Democrat  and  the  Jack- 
sonville News  —  the  destruction  of  all  banks.  Resolutions 
denouncing  banks  that  did  not  pay  specie  and  urging  the  over- 
throw of  all  banks  began  at  this  time  to  make  their  appearance 
in  the  proceedings  of  county  meetings.10 

For  a  year  and  a  half,  however,  the  banks  drew  compara- 
tively little  attention.  Nevertheless  the  clouds  were  thickening 
about  the  State  Bank.  In  May  of  1839  the  Chicago  Democrat 
published  an  article  accusing  it  of  financing  pork  and  land  specu- 
lations through  the  relatives  and  friends  of  its  directors,  as 
well  as  heavy  lead  speculation  at  Galena.  The  Sangamo 
Journal  defended  the  bank,  arguing  that  it  had  brought  into 
the  state  a  considerable  amount  of  foreign  capital  which  it 
would  have  held  there  but  for  the  undeveloped  resources  of 
Illinois  and  the  baleful  effects  of  that  democratic  whimsy  of 
specie  currency.11 

In  the  democratic  county  conventions  held  in  the  fall  of 
1839,  perhaps  in  response  to  the  pulling  of  wires  at  Spring- 
field, resolution  after  resolution  was  passed  demanding  the 
divorce  of  state  and  bank  and  the  reducing  of  the  banks  to  a 
proper  subordination  to  the  will  of  the  people.  These  resolu- 
tions warned  the  public  against  the  danger  of  monied  oligar- 
chies, going  so  far  as  to  declare  against  all  banks,  and  pointed 
with  alarm  to  bank  influence  in  the  government  of  the  state. 
The  Bank  of  Illinois,  for  its  abstention  from  speculation  and 
its  endeavor  to  serve  the  people,  had  found  favor  in  the  eyes 

10  Sangamo  Journal,  October  28,  November  18,  December  9,  1837;  Illinois 
State  Register,  August  14,  December  i,  1837;  Chicago  Democrat,  August  16,  1837. 

^Sangamo  Journal,  August  23,  September  6,  1839;  Chicago  Democrat, 
May  i,  1839. 


STATE   AND   PRIVATE   BANKING       309 

of  the  Register  at  least;  but  R.  F.  Barrett,  himself  accused  of 
speculation  with  funds  of  the  State  Bank,  declined  an  appoint- 
ment as  state  director  in  it  on  the  ground  that  no  system  of 
management  could  restore  the  credit  of  the  bank  and  regain 
the  support  of  the  public.12 

In  his  message  to  the  special  session  called  to  consider  what 
was  to  be  done  with  the  internal  improvement  system,  Gov- 
ernor Carlin  was  very  severe  upon  banks  in  general  and  the 
State  Bank  in  particular.  He  pronounced  the  incorporation 
of  fiscal  institutions  to  regulate  the  finances  of  the  country 
contrary  to  the  genius  of  a  free  people;  he  declared  that  the 
channels  of  business  ought  not  to  be  filled  up  and  controlled 
by  a  circulating  medium  susceptible  of  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion at  the  pleasure  of  a  few.  He  pointed  to  the  danger  of 
inflation  and  the  resulting  high  prices  and  to  the  distress 
caused  by  the  pressure  of  the  bank  on  its  creditors.  He 
denounced  the  suspension  whether  legalized  or  not.  Finally 
he  invited  a  legislative  investigation  as  to  whether  the  bank 
legitimately  tried  to  serve  the  business  and  public  interests  of 
the  state  or  whether  it  had  been  of  service  solely  to  specu- 
lators.13 

The  legislative  investigation  forced  even  the  friends  of  the 
bank  to  admit  that  a  sorry  condition  of  affairs  existed.  It  was 
found  that  Wiggins  had  been  allowed  to  use  his  bank  stock 
as  collateral  for  a  loan  with  which  to  meet  the  payments  due 
on  it;  it  was  found  that  the  cashier  of  the  Chicago  branch  had 
loaned  considerable  sums  to  pork  speculators  while  accommo- 
dation was  denied  to  others.  Moreover  it  was  discovered  that 
the  bank  had  lent  its  aid  to  ambitious  schemes  for  building  up 
in  Illinois  a  commercial  metropolis  to  rival  St.  Louis. 

The  commercial  aspirations  of  Alton  have  already  been 
noticed.  They  centered  in  the  activities  of  firms  of  New 
England  men,  such  as  Godfrey,  Gilman  and  Company,  and  of 
New  England  houses  like  Griggs,  Weld  and  Company  of 

12  Illinois  State  Register,  September  28,  November  23,   30,   December  25, 
1839;  Sangamo  Journal,  December  10,  1839,  January  21,  1840. 

13  Senate  Journal,  1839-1840,  special  session,  17. 


3io  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Boston.  Godfrey  and  Gilman,  by  virtue  of  their  influence  as 
large  stockholders  in  the  bank  had  secured  discounts  and  loans 
in  one  form  or  another  to  the  amount  of  some  $800,000.  They 
had  used  these  sums  largely  in  attempts  to  turn  the  lead  trade 
of  the  upper  Mississippi  from  St.  Louis  to  Alton.  They  had 
endeavored  to  operate  a  corner  in  lead  as  well  as  to  make 
extensive  purchases  of  smelters.  The  bank  through  other 
agencies  too  had  come  very  near  to  buying  and  selling  lead 
speculatively.  Much  of  this  speculative  business  not  even  the 
friends  of  the  bank  could  condone.14 

For  a  time  the  whig  newspapers  informed  their  readers 
that  the  locofocos  designed  to  destroy  the  State  Bank  and  to 
establish  in  its  stead  a  political  one  guided  by  Ebenezer  Peck 
and  Theophilus  W.  Smith.  Soon,  however,  they  came  to 
believe  that  the  locofocos,  finding  that  the  whigs  would  not 
interfere  to  arrest  their  affected  fury  against  the  bank,  were 
taking  more  moderate  counsel  rather  than  shoulder  the  respon- 
sibility of  its  destruction.  The  Register  especially  printed 
articles  urging  moderate  courses,  lest  for  the  sake  of  antibank 
principles  the  country  be  ruined.  Finally  the  legislature 
allowed  the  bank  to  continue  its  suspension,  until  the  close  of 
the  next  session  of  the  legislature,  under  certain  limitations  in- 
cluding the  obligations  to  accept  its  notes  in  payment  of  all 
debts  due  it.15 

The  wording  of  this  grace  was  such  as  to  enable  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  bank  to  curtail  the  benefits  which  the  institution 
might  legitimately  have  expected  from  it.  In  order  if  possible 
to  meet  the  problem  of  providing  for  the  interest  on  the  state 
debt,  Governor  Carlin  in  the  fall  of  1840  summoned  the  new 
general  assembly  in  special  session  two  weeks  before  the  regu- 
lar day  of  meeting.  The  democrats  elected  to  believe  that  this 
special  session  must  necessarily  terminate  before  the  day  on 
which  the  regular  session  would  begin.  Accordingly  the  end 
of  the  next  session  of  the  legislature  would  fall  not  in  February 

14Dowrie,  Development  of  Banking  in  Illinois,  90  ff. 

13  Sangamo  Journal,  January  7,  21,  1840;  Illinois  State  Register,  December 
25.  1839;  Alton  Telegraph,  December  28,  1839. 


STATE   AND   PRIVATE   BANKING       311 

as  might  have  been  expected,  but  in  December.  A  resolution 
was  pushed  through  both  houses  of  the  legislature  for  sine  die 
adjournment,  as  the  whigs  claimed  from  the  malevolence  of 
Theophilus  W.  Smith.  The  whigs  in  the  house  strove  to  pre- 
vent adjournment  by  absenting  themselves  in  such  number  as 
to  prevent  a  quorum.  As  a  laot  desperate  resort,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  Joseph  Gillespie,  and  Asahel  Gridley  inscribed  a  defen- 
estration on  the  annals  of  Illinois  by  jumping  out  of  the  state- 
house  window,  an  expedient  worthy  of  better  things  than  the 
twitting  Hardin  later  gave  Lincoln  on  the  subject.16  The 
assembly  adjourned.  The  legislators  considered  themselves 
ill  used  when  the  governor  declined  to  waste  a  second  message 
on  them  in  their  new  session.  The  State  Bank  resumed  pay- 
ments, hoping  that  other  banks  would  live  up  to  an  agreement 
to  resume  on  the  fifteenth  of  January.17 

The  democrats,  in  spite  of  the  whig  charge  that  a  clique 
among  them  desired  the  destruction  of  the  bank  that  there 
might  be  reared  a  structure  of  six  millions  in  its  stead, 
affected  —  at  least  some  of  them  —  to  claim  that  the  bank  had 
been  frightened  by  false  fire  and  that  adjournment  had  been 
taken  on  the  grounds  of  purest  constitutional  practice  with  no 
reference  to  the  bank  whatever.  The  bank's  refusal  to  finance 
the  state  further  or  to  cash  salary  warrants  soon  caused  the 
democrats  to  look  with  sympathy  on  its  plight;  and  they  ulti- 
mately legalized  its  suspension  till  other  banks  in  the  south 
and  west  should  resume  and  even  allowed  it  to  issue  notes  of 
one  dollar,  two  dollars,  and  three  dollars.  A  minority  of  some 
fourteen  democrats  in  the  house,  and  ten  in  the  senate  served 
to  pass  the  bill.18 

The  State  Bank  under  the  suspension  act  went  on  its  way; 
it  increased  instead  of  reducing  its  note  issue;  it  made  loans 
to  directors  and  began  work  on  an  expensive  banking  house. 

16  Illinois  State  Register,  December  18,  1840. 

17  Dowrie,  Development  of  Banking  in  Illinois,  97-98 ;  Illinois  State  Register, 
December  n,  1840,  January  i,  1841;   Chicago  Amtncan,  December  10,   1840; 
Belleville  Advocate,  December  12,  1840. 

18  Chicago   American,  December    10,    12,   26,    1840;    Illinois  State  Register, 
December  u,  1840,  January  i,  1841;  Sangamo  Journal,  December  n,  1840. 


3i2  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Throughout  1841  and  the  earlier  months  of  1842  democratic 
attacks  on  the  bank  redoubled.  Suspensions,  nonliability  of 
stockholders,  the  unholy  alliance  of  bank  and  state  were  all 
attacked  in  heated  resolutions.  The  State  Register  the  week 
after  praising  the  Bank  of  Illinois  for  its  judicious  course 
declared  against  all  banks.  The  Belleville  Advocate  repeatedly 
urged  farmers  to  take  only  gold  and  silver  in  payment  for 
their  produce.  The  whigs,  affecting  to  resign  themselves  to 
the  fate  of  the  State  Bank,  devoted  themselves  to  fixing  on 
their  opponents  the  responsibility  for  its  crimes  and  misman- 
agement, looking  only  to  a  national  bank  for  relief.  At  times 
the  Chicago  American  was  as  keenly  critical  as  the  Democrat, 
which  had  to  explain  the  defects  of  the  bank  management  under 
democratic  administration  as  the  fault  of  easy  virtued  demo- 
crats who  were  sufficient  in  numbers  when  allied  with  the  whigs 
to  give  the  bank  control  in  the  legislature.  By  the  early  sum- 
mer both  whigs  and  democrats  agreed  on  the  general  proposi- 
tion that  the  banks  must  resume  or  forfeit  their  charters. 
The  stock  of  the  State  Bank  a  year  before  had  fallen  to  thirty- 
seven  cents  on  the  dollar.  In  February  of  1842  the  credit  of 
its  notes  in  Illinois  declined,  and  in  April  they  fell  to  forty- 
four  cents  on  the  dollar.19 

Meanwhile  it  was  thought  that  the  Shawneetown  bank 
might  extricate  itself  from  its  difficulties  and  resume;  but  it 
passed  the  day  set  for  resumption,  June  15,  1842,  and  its  notes, 
which  on  May  14  had  been  within  six  or  seven  per  cent  of  par 
at  Chicago,  were  a  month  later  at  ten  per  cent  discount.  John 
Marshall,  who  as  president  had  conducted  the  bank's  affairs 
with  skill,  refused  a  reelection  in  January,  1843.  The  notes 
of  the  Bank  of  Cairo,  representing  another  revival  of  a  terri- 
torial charter  which  had  furnished  in  1840  a  very  large  share 
of  the  small  note  currency  and  which  apparently  was  then  on 

19  Chicago  Democrat,  February  9,  June  8,  October  19,  1842;  Belleville  Advo- 
cate, January  27,  March  3,  10,  April  28,  September  22,  1842;  Illinois  State 
Register,  April  8,  May  6,  13,  1842;  Chicago  American,  March  10,  19,  April  2, 
7,  13,  25,  1842;  Alton  Telegraph,  July  16,  1842;  Dowrie,  Development  of  Bank- 
ing in  Illinois,  99,  101. 


STATE   AND   PRIVATE   BANKING       313 

a  sound  basis,  by  1841  had  begun  to  depreciate;  and  by  Decem- 
ber, apparently  after  it  had  been  rumored  that  the  Wrights 
were  interested  in  the  bank,  the  notes  were  unsalable  in  both 
Chicago  and  St.  Louis.  The  charter  was  repealed  in  1843, 
but  the  bank  was  not  liquidated  for  twenty  years  thereafter.20 

The  fate  of  the  State  Bank  and  Bank  of  Illinois  was  ren- 
dered inevitable  by  the  fact  that  they  were  linked  with  the 
disastrous  state  internal  improvement  system.  Compelled  to 
pay  dividends  on  stock  paid  for  by  bonds  selling  in  1840  and 
1841  at  all  manner  of  discounts,  their  burden  was  a  heavy  one. 
Bad  banking  only  hastened  the  inevitable  result. 

With  the  fall  of  the  banks  the  currency  of  the  state,  which 
had  hitherto  consisted  largely  of  bank  notes,  fell  into  appar- 
ently hopeless  confusion.  In  the  fall  of  1842,  state  offices 
finally  refused  to  accept  State  Bank  paper  for  taxes.  In 
July,  it  was  said  business  was  very  near  a  specie  basis  in  both 
Chicago  and  St.  Louis.  In  September  the  American  declared 
that  at  Chicago  little  was  in  circulation  beside  specie  and  notes 
of  the  State  Bank  of  Indiana  and  the  Wisconsin  Marine  and 
Fire  Insurance  Company.  The  latter  concern,  whose  guiding 
spirit  was  George  Smith,  a  canny  Scotchman,  for  many  years 
gave  Chicago  a  sound  paper  currency  almost  in  defiance  of 
the  law.21 

When  the  State  Bank  came  up  for  final  judgment  in  the 
assembly  of  1842—1843,  two  different  points  of  view  were 
evident.  There  were  certain  radicals  who  were  opposed  to 
all  banks  and  all  corporate  privileges  on  principle  and 
advocated  repeal  of  the  bank  charter.  The  radicals  won  over 
Governor  Carlin  to  their  side  and  induced  him  to  recommend 
the  repeal  in  his  last  message.  This  action  seriously  hampered 
his  successor,  Ford,  who  rejected  the  proposal  on  grounds  both 
of  the  state's  financial  advantage  and  of  the  bad  effect  on 

20  Chicago  American,  September  n,  1840,  January  13,  December  10,  1841, 
March  22,  April  19,  May  4,   14,   18,  June   29,    1842;    Dowrie,  Development  of 
Banking  in  Illinois,  126-128. 

21  Chicago  American,  July  12,  27,  August  27,  1842;  Dowrie,  Development  of 
Banking  in  Illinois,  129. 


3i4  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

European  capitalists  that  such  a  violation  of  vested  right  would 
produce.  Instead  he  proposed  a  compromise  by  which  the  state 
bonds  should  be  withdrawn  dollar  for  dollar  in  return  for  the 
surrender  of  the  state's  stock.22  Governor  Ford  with  the  sup- 
port of  McClernand  and  Douglas  forced  a  bill  through  the 
house  of  representatives  adopting  the  project,  by  a  vote  of  one 
hundred  and  seven  to  four.  Peck  and  Trumbull  —  in  the  hope 
of  receiverships  if  the  bank  were  smashed,  according  to  the  Al- 
ton Telegraph  —  demanded  more  violent  measures;  but  their 
agitation  merely  served  to  draw  on  Trumbull  the  fire  of  Mc- 
Clernand at  its  hottest.  They  made  Ralston  their  agent  in  the 
senate  to  oppose  the  bill;  but  the  only  result  was  to  give  the 
latter  the  opportunity  to  sit  for  his  portrait  in  Ford's  history, 
the  governor  drawing  the  picture  with  his  pen  dipped  in  the 
sharpest  caustic.  The  act  passed,  and  the  bank  began  what 
was  to  be  a  long  period  of  liquidation.  The  bonds  of  the 
state,  turned  over  almost  immediately,  were  burned  by  the 
governor  before  the  statehouse,  as  a  symbol  of  the  state's 
decision.  But  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  a  process  the  end 
of  which  lies  far  outside  the  period  of  this  volume.23 

The  Bank  of  Illinois  was  compelled  to  accept  liquidation 
of  a  similar  sort,  but  it  was  allowed  a  year  to  pay  up  the 
second  half  of  the  million  of  indebtedness  to  the  state  in 
exchange  for  state  stock.  In  the  second  payment,  it  attempted 
to  include  certain  of  the  bonds  hypothecated  to  Macalister  and 
Stebbins;  this  resulted  in  a  controversy  and  finally  the  accep- 
tance of  the  bonds  by  the  state  at  forty-eight  cents  on  the  dollar. 
Ultimately  the  only  creditors  to  suffer  a  total  loss  were  the 
private  stockholders  in  the  bank.24 

Thereafter  at  least  until  the  close  of  the  period,  the  doc- 

22  On  Investigation  it  was  found  that  the  State  Bank  held  $2,103,000  in 
state  bonds  which  could  be  set  off  against  a  sum  some  fifty  thousand  dollars 
larger,  made  up  of  the  following  items:  bonds  $1,686,000,  scrip  $17,534.50, 
advance  for  current  expenses  $292,373.17,  advance  for  fund  commissioners  $156,- 
496.42. 

28  Alton  Telegraph,  December  31,  1842;  Dowrie,  Development  of  Banking 
in  Illinois,  13,  166  ff. ;  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  307  passim;  Illinois  State  Reg- 
ister, January  6,  1843;  Sangamo  Journal,  February  2,  1843. 

24  Dowrie,  Development  of  Banking  in  Illinois,  124-126. 


trine  of  the  democratic  party  was  against  further  incorporation 
of  state  banks,  against  the  connection  of  state  or  nation  with 
a  bank,  and,  as  phrased  by  certain  ultra-radicals,  against  any- 
thing but  a  gold  and  silver  currency.  Antibank  utterances  were 
bandied  back  and  forth  in  the  party  meeting  and  journals  with 
a  view,  as  Ford  sarcastically  remarked,  to  the  obtaining  of 
personal  popularity  at  a  cheap  rate.  Nevertheless  in  the  party 
there  was  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  more  moderate  men  to 
recognize  the  inevitableness  of  some  form  of  banking  institu- 
tion. The  State  Register  had  occasionally  to  meet  charges 
that  it  secretly  desired  the  establishment  of  banks.  And  there 
was  in  the  democratic  party,  as  the  constitutional  convention  of 
1847  was  to  demonstrate,  a  strong  element  inclined  to  temper 
its  utterances  regarding  the  iniquities  of  all  banks.  The  next 
chapter  of  banking  in  the  state,  however,  remains  to  be  written 
in  the  succeeding  volume.25 

25  Illinois  State  Register,  February  3,  August  18,  1843,  February  9,  October 
n,  1844;  Belleville  Advocate,  August  i,  16,  1843,  January  i,  1844,  November 
29,  1845;  Chicago  Democrat,  July  10,  1844,  February  23,  1846;  Ford,  History 
of  Illinois,  297. 


XVII.    THE  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENT  SYSTEM: 
THE  SOLUTION 

TO  COMPLETE  the  story  of  the  internal  improvement 
system  so  rashly  inaugurated  by  the  state  of  Illinois  in 
1837  it  remains  to  give  an  account  of  the  means  by  which  the 
state  was  finally  extricated  from  the  seemingly  hopeless  posi- 
tion into  which  its  general  assembly  had  thrown  it.  With  the 
story  of  the  salvation  of  the  state  is  inseparably  connected  the 
name  of  Thomas  Ford.  Thomas  Ford,  seventh  elected  gov- 
ernor of  Illinois,  had  had  an  obscure  political  career  until  the 
time  he  was  elected  to  the  position  of  chief  executive.  Poverty 
had  hampered  him  in  his  political  ambitions  as  it  had  hampered 
his  half-brother,  George  Forquer,  compelling  them  both  to 
serve  for  years  as  stout  henchmen  to  other  leaders.  Forquer 
had  been  embittered  by  his  overlong  apprenticeship  in  politics, 
and  Ford  probably  suffered  from  a  similar  cause.  He  was  a 
lawyer  of  no  mean  ability  and  had  served  with  honor  as  circuit 
judge  before  he  became  governor.  At  the  end  of  his  term  as 
governor  he  set  himself  to  write  a  history  of  Illinois,  one  of 
the  two  or  three  remarkable  books  written  in  the  state  during 
the  formative  period.  Ford  undertook  the  task  of  explaining 
the  political  tendencies  and  habits  of  the  Illinois  of  his  day,  in 
particular,  of  explaining  for  the  benefit  of  future  generations 
the  seemingly  inexplicable  devotion  of  the  people  of  the  state 
to  the  kind  of  partisan  politics  exemplified  by  Peck.  With 
this  ideal  before  him,  Ford  produced  a  book  that  only  the  dis- 
illusioned cynicism  with  which  it  is  written  has  held  back  from 
recognition  as  one  of  the  clearest  and  most  subtle  analyses  of 
American  politics.  Being  one  of  the  earliest  of  books  on  the 
philosophy  of  American  history,  it  should  no  longer  be  neg- 
lected and  dismissed  as  merely  an  old  book  of  state  history. 

316 


THE    SOLUTION  317 

•  At  Ford's  inauguration  the  state  stood  at  the  point  where 
a  decision  must  be  made  with  reference  to  internal  improve- 
ments. Carlin,  passing  off  the  stage  as  governor,  sent  a 
farewell  message  to  the  general  assembly  that  is  no  more  than 
a  sigh  of  "  'Tis  a'  a  muddle."  Like  the  good  locofoco  he 
was  he  attributed  the  whole  internal  improvement  scheme  to 
the  baleful  effect  of  paper  money.  He  detailed  in  meager, 
bewildered  paragraphs  the  steps  of  the  state's  downfall;  he 
told  the  legislature  that  their  duty  was  to  provide  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  interest  on  eleven  millions  of  debt,  some  $670,000. 
He  denounced  as  impracticable  the  raising  of  any  money  from 
the  sale  of  state  lands;  and  as  arguments  against  taxation  to 
discharge  the  interest  he  pleaded  a  declining  tax  roll,  a  disap- 
pearing circulating  medium  and  popular  disapproval.  Thus 
abandoning  all  hope  of  paying  the  interest  on  the  debt,  he  told 
the  general  assembly  that  it  must  plan  to  reduce  the  principle 
by  surrendering  the  state  lands  to  the  bondholders  in  case  they 
cared  to  take  them.  He  recommended  the  rejection  of  the 
state's  share  of  the  distribution  fund  on  grounds  of  principle 
and  stammered  his  way  to  the  close  alike  of  his  message  and 
of  his  official  career. 

No  stronger  contrast  to  this  message  can  be  imagined  than 
the  inaugural  of  Ford.  By  the  openness  and  sincerity  with 
which  it  discussed  the  state's  plight  it  carried  conviction  of 
the  honesty  of  its  statements  and  proposals.  The  frankness 
with  which  it  coupled  the  admission  of  the  justness  of  the 
state  debt  with  the  need  for  patience  on  the  part  of  the  credi- 
tors, if  the  state  ever  were  to  be  able  to  pay  all,  showed  that 
the  backwoods  judge  had  found  instinctively  the  method  of 
address  that  wins  the  confidence  and  support  of  men  of  affairs. 

"The  whole  amount  of  the  State  debt,"  wrote  Ford, 
"  excluding  interest  now  due,  may  be  put  down  at  the  sum  of 
fifteen  millions  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  thousand  three 
hundred  and  forty-eight  dollars  and  seventy-one  cents;  which 
sum,  from  the  best  information  which  I  can  obtain,  appears 
to  be  composed  of  the  following  items: 


3i8  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

Bonds  negotiated  on  account  of  the  Canal $3,747,000.00 

Scrip  and  certificates  of  indebtedness  issued  to  contractors  by  the 

Canal  Board 689,408.00 

Bonds  negotiated  on  account  of  the  system  of  internal  improvements.  5,085,444.00 

Scrip  issued  to  contractors  on  account  of  internal  improvements 929.305.53 

Bonds  issued  to  and  purchased  by  the  State  Bank  on  account  of  State 

stock    1,765,000.00 

Bonds  issued  to  and  purchased  by  the  Bank  of  Illinois  on  account  of 

State  stock 900,000.00 

Bonds  issued  on  account  of  the  State  House  at  Springfield 121,000.00 

Due  the  government  of  the  United  States,  when  called  for,  on  account 

of  surplus  revenue  deposited  in  the  State  Treasury 477,919.00 

A  portion  of  this  sum,  by  act  of  the  General  Assembly,  was  added 
to  the  school  fund,  and  consequently,  by  our  present  law,  we 
are  indebted  to  the  school  fund  on  that  account  in  the  sum  of . . .  335,592.00 
Due  the  school,  college  and  seminary  funds  for  money  borrowed  by 
act  of  the  General  Assembly,  to  assist  in  paying  the  current  ex- 
penses of  the  State 472,492.18 

Due  the  State  Bank  of  Illinois  for  paying  Auditor's  warrants  and 

interest  on  the  same 294,190.00 

To  the  Bank  of  Illinois  at  Shawneetown  on  settlement 369,998.00 

"  Upon  the  whole  of  this  sum,  except  so  much  as  is  due  to 
the  school,  college  and  seminary  funds,  and  so  much  as  is  due 
to  the  United  States  on  account  of  surplus  revenue  deposited, 
interest  is  now  due  from  the  first  day  of  July,  1841.  It  has 
hitherto  been  supposed,  that  the  profits  of  the  State  stock  in 
the  two  banks  would  be  amply  sufficient  to  pay  interest,  not 
only  on  the  sum  paid  in  bonds,  amounting  to  two  million  six 
hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand  dollars,  but  also  on  the  further 
sum  of  three  hundred  thirty-five  thousand  and  five-hundred 
ninety-two  dollars,  part  of  the  surplus  revenue,  first  added  to 
the  school  fund  and  then  converted  into  bank  stock.  But  the  fail- 
ure of  those  banks,  and  their  present  precarious  situation,  ren- 
ders it  almost  certain  that  if  we  continue  our  connection  with 
them  the  amount  of  bonds  paid  in  will  be  nearly  a  total  loss, 
and  consequently  that  sum  will  form  one  of  the  demands  upon 
which  interest  will  have  to  be  provided  in  future.  Those  banks 
have  not  for  a  long  time  past,  as  far  as  I  am  informed,  de- 
clared or  paid  any  dividends  in  favor  of  the  State;  conse- 
quently, the  interest  provided  by  law  to  be  paid  to  the  several 
counties  on  the  sum  of  $335,592,  part  of  the  surplus  revenue 
added  to  the  school  fund,  has  formed  a  demand  on  the  State 
Treasury  and  has  been  paid  out  of  the  ordinary  revenues  de- 


THE   SOLUTION  319 

rived  from  taxes.  I  cannot  believe  that  it  was  the  intention  of 
former  legislatures  to  make  this  a  permanent  demand  upon  the 
treasury,  to  be  raised  by  taxation.  It  must  undoubtedly  have 
been  supposed  by  our  predecessors  that  the  profits  of  banking 
would  be  fully  sufficient  to  meet  the  appropriation.  I,  there- 
fore, submit  to  the  General  Assembly  whether  the  State  is  any 
longer  bound  to  pay  interest  on  that  sum,  unless  it  can  be 
derived  from  the  profits  of  the  investment. 

"  Many  persons  suppose,  and  I  think  with  great  proba- 
bility, that  an  arrangement  can  be  made  with  the  two  banks, 
by  which  the  State  can  get  back  the  two  million  six  hundred  and 
sixty-five  thousand  dollars  in  bonds,  which  have  been  issued  to 
them."1 

At  the  outset  Ford  declared  that  the  people  of  Illinois  did 
not  believe  in  repudiation.  He  pointed  out  that  even  in  1841 
they  had  in  good  faith  done  their  best  through  their  general 
assembly  to  raise  a  sufficient  fund  for  interest.  He  dismissed 
as  impossible  the  sale  of  state  lands  and  property  or  the  tax 
of  one  and  one-half  cents  on  the  dollar  necessary  to  meet 
the  interest  on  the  state's  debt.  "The  main  thing  with  which 
the  world  can  justly  reproach  us  is,  that  we  were  visionary 
and  reckless;  that  without  sober  deliberation,  we  jumped  head- 
long into  ambitious  schemes  of  public  aggrandizement,  which 
were  not  justifiable  by  our  resources.  Nor  are  our  original 
creditors  free  from  reproach,  on  the  same  account. 

"They  as  men  of  intelligence,  sufficient  for  the  proper 
management  of  large  capital,  ought  as  well  as  ourselves,  to 
have  forseen  our  future  want  of  ability,  and  the  constant 
catastrophe  which  our  common  error  has  produced."  He 
pointed  out  that  while  a  single  year's  tax  at  a  rate  sufficing  to 
pay  the  interest  might  be  raised,  that  it  could  not  be  repeated, 
and  that  the  creditors  would  be  left  if  they  insisted  upon  such 
a  measure,  to  deal  with  a  depopulated  and  ruined  state.  "If 
our  creditors  are  ever  to  be  paid,  it  will  not  be  by  the  mere 

1  House  Journal,  1842-1843,  i  session,  39-51;  Senate  Journal,  1842-1843,  i 
•ession,  33-44. 


320  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

territory  composing  the  State,  nor  by  the  abstract  thing  called 
State  sovereignty,  but  by  the  people  who  may  be  here,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  land;  and  how  are  they  to  be  paid  if  we 
depopulate  our  country?" 

Having  thus  stated  to  the  creditors  the  argument  against 
taxation  to  the  hilt,  Ford  stated  the  true  remedy.  "Let  it 
be  known  in  the  first  place  that  no  oppressive  and  exterminat- 
ing taxation  is  to  be  resorted  to ;  in  the  second,  we  must  convince 
our  creditors  and  the  world,  that  the  disgrace  of  repudiation 
is  not  countenanced.  ...  I  would,  therefore,  recommend  to 
the  General  Assembly  to  speak  on  this  subject  in  the  most 
decisive  manner,  so  as  to  give  every  assurance  that  in  due 
time,  we  will  tax  ourselves  according  to  our  ability,  to  pay  our 
debts.  The  consequence  will  be,  that  our  creditors,  who  are 
persons  of  power  and  influence,  instead  of  reproaching  us  and 
getting  up  a  moral  crusade  against  us,  as  against  a  confederated 
band  of  unprincipled  swindlers,  with  a  view  to  coerce  us  to 
our  duty,  will  be  directly  interested  in  doing  us  all  the  good 
in  their  power."  Wiser  words  had  not  been  spoken  since  the 
system  began. 

Ford  suggested  that  immediately  the  creditors  be  offered 
at  a  fair  valuation  all  the  landed  property  of  the  state  to  dimin- 
ish the  debt  by  so  much.  Meanwhile  he  urged  the  completion 
of  the  canal  as  sure  to  enhance  greatly  the  value  of  a  portion 
of  the  state  land.  He  recommended  that  the  canal,  now  five- 
eighths  completed  be  pushed  to  completion  as  a  lock  canal. 
With  a  series  of  sound  recommendations  for  state  finance 
the  document  concluded.  In  its  twelve  pages  Ford  had  carried 
conviction  to  his  hearers. 

Inaugurated  by  such  a  message  the  work  of  the  general 
assembly  was  fruitful.  It  passed  acts  for  the  winding  up  of 
the  State  Bank  and  of  the  Bank  of  Illinois,  providing  in  each 
case  for  the  surrender  to  the  state  of  the  bonds  which  they 
held  in  exchange  for  the  surrender  of  the  stock  in  the  institu- 
tion owned  by  the  state.  The  general  assembly  further  pro- 
vided for  the  sale  of  all  state  lands  and  property  acquired  in 


THE   SOLUTION  321 

connection  with  the  internal  improvement  system  to  be  paid 
for  in  evidences  of  state  indebtedness  or  in  gold  and  silver 
with  the  intention  that  a  part  of  the  state  indebtedness  might 
thus  be  liquidated.  Unfortunately  the  assembly  reduced  the 
tax  rate  to  twenty  cents  on  the  hundred;  further  it  provided 
for  the  issue  of  warrants  in  return  for  the  surrender  of  the 
Macalister  and  Stebbins  bonds,  but  years  passed  before  this 
act  resulted  in  the  final  settlement  of  the  controversy.  Further 
the  legislature  passed  a  resolution  disclaiming  any  intention 
of  repudiation.  Most  Important,  however,  it  passed  an  act 
for  the  completion  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal.  By 
it  the  governor  was  authorized  to  negotiate  on  the  credit  of 
the  canal  and  its  appurtenances  a  loan  of  $1,600,000  from 
holders  of  canal  bonds  or  from  others.  The  canal  property 
was  to  be  made  over  to  trustees  elected  by  the  subscribers  as 
security  for  the  payment  of  the  loan  and  bonds,  with  the  pro- 
viso that  bonds  were  not  to  be  sold  till  after  the  completion 
of  the  canal  which  would  be  within  three  years  after  the  act 
went  into  operation.  Meanwhile,  the  trustees  were  to  operate 
it  for  the  benefit  of  the  subscribers  and  other  bondholders 
until  the  indebtedness  to  them  was  fully  paid.  The  governor 
was  authorized  to  negotiate  the  terms  except  that  he  might 
not  pledge  the  state's  faith  for  the  payment  of  the  bonds. 

In  his  history  of  Illinois  2  Ford  gives  the  credit  for  devis- 
ing originally  the  scheme  of  completing  the  canal  to  Justin 
Butterfield  of  Chicago,  who  in  the  summer  of  1842  had  suc- 
ceeded in  interesting  several  of  the  large  capitalists  among 
the  state's  eastern  creditors  in  the  device  which  was  proposed. 
Undoubtedly,  however,  Ford  must  be  given  the  credit  for 
adopting  the  scheme  and  for  stating  it  officially  in  the  clearest 
possible  manner  as  he  presented  it  in  his  first  message.8 

These  measures  did  not  pass  without  sectional  and  partisan 
opposition.  Southern  members  like  McClernand  denounced 
the  measures  as  calculated  to  tax  southern  Illinois  for  the 

2  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  295. 

3  Laws  of  1843,  p.  21,  30,  54,  191,  231  ff. 


322 


THE    FRONTIER   STATE 


benefit  of  the  northern  counties;  Ficklin  protested  against  the 
payment  of  the  Macalister  and  Stebbins  debt  by  taxation.  It 
was  the  Alton  Telegraph  that  kept  up  the  most  consistent, 
concerted,  and  malevolent  attack  on  the  program  by  which 
Ford  sought  to  rescue  the  state  finances.  It  declared  that  it 
was  criminal  for  Illinois  to  borrow  another  dollar  until  her 
debts  were  reduced.  It  served  notice  that  it  would  expose  any 
garbled  statement  of  state  finances,  naturally  thereby  doing 
what  it  could  to  diminish  the  confidence  of  the  foreign  investors 
whose  aid  was  so  necessary  for  the  initiation  of  the  schemes. 
It  showed  the  cloven  hoof  by  declaring  in  the  end  for  assump- 
tion of  state  debts  by  the  national  government  as  the  only 
means  out  of  the  difficulty.  It  asked  if  Oakley  and  Ryan,  on 
their  pilgrimage  to  the  English  bondholders,  would  tell  them 
that  the  democrats  had  repudiated  the  Macalister  and  Stebbins 
bonds  and  repealed  the  charter  of  the  Bank  of  Illinois.  It 
declared  frankly  that  foreign  capitalists  were  justified  in  hesi- 
tating to  lend  the  state  more  money.  Similar  statements  came 
from  the  east;  the  democrats  might  well  wonder  if  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  measure  was  not  further  inspired  by  a  desire  to 
induce  the  state  in  desperation  to  adopt  federal  assumption 
and  distribution  and  with  these  measures  the  political  party 
that  favored  them.4 

In  pursuance  of  the  act  for  the  completion  of  the  canal 
Ford  appointed  Oakley  and  Ryan  commissioners  of  the  state 
to  the  bondholders.  They  found  themselves  much  hampered 
by  the  reduction  in  the  rate  of  taxation  by  the  legislature  at 
the  last  session,  finding  it  difficult  to  give  the  bondholders  satis- 
factory assurance  in  view  of  it  that  the  state  could  from  that 
time  be  trusted  to  fulfill  its  obligations.  They  procured  a  con- 
siderable subscription,  however,  amounting  to  a  million  and 
a  half  in  the  United  States  and  sold  about  two  millions  of  the 
bonds  in  England  at  rates  of  thirty-two  to  forty  per  cent,  on 
the  terms  that  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent  be  paid  at  once  and 

*  Chicago  Democrat,  March  21,   October    n,   1843;   Illinois  State  Register, 
March  17,  24,  1843;    Alton  Telegraph,  February  4,  1843. 


THE   SOLUTION  323 

that  the  remainder  should  be  forthcoming  only  in  case  the 
next  legislature  provided  for  the  future  payment  of  a  part  of 
the  accruing  interest  and  a  gradual  payment  of  the  arrears 
the  terms  that  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent  be  paid  at  once  and 
of  it.  The  subscription,  however,  could  not  be  completed  and 
accordingly  was  not  binding.  Baring  Brothers  and  Magniac, 
Jardine  and  Company,  in  London,  interested  themselves  in 
behalf  of  the  state's  proposal.5  They  requested  Abbott  Law- 
rence, W.  Sturgis,  and  T.  W.  Ward  of  Boston  to  choose  agents 
to  examine  into  the  canal  situation  in  Illinois  and  in  the  United 
States  and  to  report  to  them  as  to  the  feasibility  and  security 
of  the  whole  scheme.  Perhaps  unfortunately  they  chose  as 
commissioners  Captain  William  H.  Swift  and  John  Davis,  the 
latter  a  whig  politician  of  Massachusetts  who  boasted  the 
sobriquet  of  "  honest." 

Davis  and  Swift  visited  Illinois  in  the  late  fall  of  1843 
and  produced  a  long  report,  somewhat  prosy  reading,  in  which 
after  professing  extreme  caution  on  every  point  they  inclined 
to  favor  the  proposition ;  and  so  they  reported  to  the  English 
bondholders.  Unfortunately  the  suspicion  of  political  motives 
entered  here.  Probably  at  the  suggestion  of  Abbott  Lawrence, 
Davis  was  summoned  to  England  by  the  English  bankers  inter- 
ested; and  the  subscription  to  the  loan  was  delayed.  The 
democrats,  including  Michael  Ryan,  one  of  the  commissioners, 
were  inclined  to  believe  that  it  was  a  piece  of  politics  to  attempt 
to  frustrate  the  settlement  of  the  debts  of  Illinois  in  order 
that  in  the  presidential  election  of  1844  tne  whigs  might  have 
one  more  argument  for  assumption  of  state  debts.  The  Eng- 
lish bankers  concerned  denied  any  such  motive,  without  doubt 
sincerely;  but  it  is  far  from  clear  that  some  of  the  wealthy 
whigs  of  New  England  who  were  their  trusted  advisers  on 
American  affairs  were  equally  innocent.6  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  reason  the  negotiations  hung  fire  until  the  legislative 

5  Reports  General  Assembly,  1844-1845,  senate,  90  ff.,  129  ff. 

6  Chicago  Democrat,  November  27,  December  25,  1844,  September  24,  1845; 
the  charge  appeared  originally  in  the  Ne<w  York  Journal  of  Commerce.     Re- 
ports General  Assembly,  1844-1845,  senate,  133. 


324  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

session  of  1844-1845.  There  the  crucial  question  was  as  to 
whether  the  state  would  comply  with  the  demand  of  the  bond- 
holders for  additional  taxation. 

Once  more  the  word  repudiation  was  current  and  perhaps 
somewhat  less  generally  in  men's  minds.  Various  measures 
were  suggested  in  the  course  of  the  session.  Orval  Sexton  of 
Gallatin  proposed  that  the  canal  law  of  1843  be  repealed  and 
work  on  the  canal  be  stopped,  and  that  for  the  payment  of 
the  debt  the  state  rely  on  a  sinking  fund.  He  proposed  a  pro- 
viso to  the  interest  bill  allowing  the  legislature  to  repeal 
it  at  will  terming  the  act  "real  cane  break,  hunting  shirt" 
democracy.7  There  were  on  various  hands  complaints  of  the 
dictation  of  the  bondholders  and  statements  that  their  demand 
for  the  levy  of  an  insignificant  tax  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
$1,600,000  loan  was  absurd.  In  addition  there  were  expres- 
sions of  dread  at  the  danger  to  Illinois  of  her  entanglement  in 
a  perpetual  monopoly.  Alfred  W.  Cavarly  was  for  complet- 
ing the  canal  by  taxation  and  by  the  issue  of  scrip  due  in  three 
years.  Richard  Yates  declared  for  refunding  the  internal 
improvement  and  statehouse  debt  at  three  per  cent,  for  relying 
on  taxation  to  raise  the  interest  and  for  the  use  of  any  surplus 
for  a  sinking  fund.  There  were  counsels  even  more  eloquent 
of  blank  despair.  Fithian  proposed  turning  over  to  the  state's 
creditors  its  property  and  one  or  two  millions  more  in  bonds 
on  which  the  interest  was  actually  to  be  paid.  George  H. 
Hanson  of  Coles  was  firm  in  the  belief  that  further  taxation 
would  ruin  the  state  past  all  repair  and  that  it  would  never  be 
able  to  pay.8 

The  measure  which  was  finally  passed  provided  for  a  mill 
tax  in  1845  increasing  in  1846  to  a  mill  and  a  half  and  there- 
after remaining  at  that  figure,  which  was  to  be  sacredly  devoted 
to  the  payment  of  the  interest  on  the  debts  of  the  state  except- 
ing that  on  the  bonds  hypothecated  with  Macalister  and 
Stebbins.  A  new  canal  act  repeating  the  provisions  of  that  of 

7  Sangamo  Journal,  February  27,  1845;  Alton  Telegraph,  January  25,  1845. 

8  Sangamo  Journal,  March  6,   13,   1845;   Belleville  Advocate,  January   16, 
23,  1845;  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  January  13,  16,  1845. 


THE   SOLUTION  325 

the  previous  session  completed  the  necessary  legislation. 
Northern  Illinois  was  wild  with  joy;  public  meetings  thanked 
the  various  men  concerned,  Oakley,  Ryan,  Davis,  Leavitt,  and 
the  governor.  The  Chicago  Journal  headed  the  news  with 
"  Joyful  News ! ! !  Get  out  your  Spades  and  Go  to  Digging ! ! " 
The  vote  on  the  interest  bill  had  been  twenty-one  to  twenty  in 
the  senate  and  in  the  house  sixty-six  to  thirty-nine  on  a  test 
vote.9 

At  one  time  the  democratic  papers  of  the  north  were 
inclined  to  attempt  to  set  the  whigs  down  as  repudiators.  In 
general  the  whigs  were  nearer  the  mark  in  declaring  that  the 
true  enemies  of  the  state's  rehabilitation  were  the  southern 
democrats,  though  Davis  of  the  Alton  Telegraph  now  as  here- 
tofore was  inclined  to  criticize  viciously.10  It  was  probably 
true,  however,  that  some  of  the  whig  papers  were  inclined  to 
believe  that  in  the  failure  of  their  proposal,  the  distribution 
act,  the  democratic  measure  was  fair  game.11  As  a  matter  of 
fact  proportionately  more  whigs  than  democrats  voted  for  the 
measure  in  both  houses.  The  real  significance  of  the  vote  is  to 
be  sought  from  another  angle.  If  we  except  a  little  block  of 
votes  in  Hancock  and  Adams  and  a  few  scattered  votes  in  the 
south,  the  vote  on  the  measure  was  sectional.  The  valleys  of 
the  Illinois  and  the  Rock  were  for  the  measure,  and  southern 
and  eastern  Illinois  against  it. 

Here  ends  the  internal  improvement  question  as  an  issue 
vital  to  the  life  of  the  state.  There  were  still  to  be  squabbles 
between  the  trustees  appointed  by  the  state  and  the  trustees 
appointed  by  the  bondholders.  Whig  papers  claimed  that  the 
price  of  Augustus  C.  French's  nomination  as  governor  had 
been  the  removal  of  Jacob  Fry  as  trustee,  and  they  denounced 
savagely  his  appointment  of  Oakley.  Oakley  soon  became 
involved  in  an  open  quarrel  with  the  other  trustees  whom  he 

9  Chicago  Dally  Journal,  March  3,  7,  1845;  Laws  of  1845,  p.  31,  44;  Senate 
Journal,  1844-1845,  i  session,  400;  House  Journal,  1844-1845,  i  session,  577. 

10  Illinois  State  Register,  March   14,   1845;   Alton   Telegraph,  February   8, 
22,  1845;  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  January  25,  March  8,  12,  22,  1845;   Chicago 
Democrat,  February  5,  1845. 

11  Sangamo  Journal,  January  2,  1845. 


326  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

accused  of  incompetence,  nonresidence,  and  the  taking  of  exces- 
sive salaries.  An  attempt  on  his  part  to  get  William  Gooding 
removed  as  engineer  failed  in  a  bondholders'  meeting.12  The 
session  of  the  legislature  of  1847  saw  a  series  of  laws  designed 
to  complete  the  refunding  of  the  state  debt.  One  authorized 
the  issue  of  new  bonds  in  exchange  for  the  old,  as  well  as  of 
certificates  for  the  payment  of  interest  then  in  arrears,  the  cer- 
tificates to  bear  interest  after  1856  and  to  be  redeemable  after 
1876.  A  second  act  authorized  a  settlement  with  Macalister 
and  Stebbins.  A  third  provided  for  the  issue  in  exchange  for 
canal  scrip  of  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  bonds  and  for  the 
accrued  interest  of  certificates  of  indebtedness  of  noninterest- 
bearing  certificates  receivable  for  canal  lots  and  lands  hitherto 
sold. 

Here  may  be  concluded  the  tedious  story  of  the  financial 
devices  and  arrangements  by  which  Illinois  in  sober  earnest 
succeeded  in  extricating  itself  from  its  financial  embarrassment. 
The  tale  of  such  devices  cannot  be  made  so  interesting  to  the 
reader  of  history  as  can  the  account  of  the  party  alliances  and 
the  bargaining  mania  by  which  the  state  at  first  plunged  itself 
into  the  internal  improvement  system.  Yet,  for  the  student 
of  the  politics  of  the  state  the  contrast  between  the  two  is  in- 
structive. Between  the  Illinois  of  1837  and  the  Illinois  of 
1847—1848  there  was  all  the  difference  between  light-hearted 
reckless  youth  and  sober  responsible  manhood.  The  state  by 
democratic  machinery  of  government  had  chosen  a  man  to  extri- 
cate it  from  the  result  of  its  errors  and  headlong  extravagance. 
In  doing  so  Illinois  had  learned  and  learned  much,  and  had 
acquired  poise  and  balance.  Undertaking  in  the  end  the  pay- 
ment of  her  debt  the  state  acquired  the  respect  of  the  world 
and  acquired  also  political  experience  and  judgment  which 
were  to  fit  it  for  active  and  efficient  participation  in  the  great 
affairs  of  the  union  during  the  next  twenty  years. 

12  Chicago  Dally  Journal,  December  19,  1846,  January  25,  February  2,  8, 
September  20,  1847;  Chicago  Democrat,  July  20,  November  19,  1847;  Illinois 
State  Register,  June  17,  1847. 


XVIII. 


THE  events  of  President  Folk's  administration  made  it 
plain  that  the  old  Jacksonian  democracy  had  disap- 
peared, and  that  in  the  party  that  ostensibly  represented  it,  the 
interests  of  the  south  appeared  to  dictate  the  decision  on  every 
issue.  Texas  and  Oregon  had  been  coupled  in  the  expansionist 
democratic  platform  of  1844.  But  no  sooner  was  Polk  in  the 
saddle  than  excellent  reasons  were  found  for  compromising 
the  north's  controversy  with  Great  Britain  over  Oregon  and 
pressing  the  south's  interest  in  Texas  to  the  extreme  of  war 
with  Mexico.  Finally  the  doctrine  of  strict  construction  was 
so  applied  to  appropriations  for  river  and  harbor  improve- 
ments that  the  outraged  north  found  itself  cut  off  from  the 
fruits  of  federal  bounty  apparently  at  least  essential  to  its 
very  commercial  existence.  So  at  least  the  north  argued.  The 
student  of  history  would  hardly  admit,  in  toto,  the  north's 
indictment  of  the  motives  of  the  southern  statesmen  in  the 
party;  but  the  fact  remains  that  northern  democrats  believed 
or  professed  to  believe  them  and  that  the  Oregon  and  river 
and  harbor  questions  were  sufficient  to  cause  in  the  democratic 
party  in  Illinois  and  in  the  nation  a  division  having  a  slavery 
and  antislavery  cast. 

In  its  propaganda  for  the  annexation  of  Texas  the  south 
since  1843  had  been  able  to  count  on  support  in  southern 
Illinois.  John  Reynolds  especially  had  taken  Texas  under  his 
tutelage,  arguing  that  it  would  be  a  necessary  counterset  to 
Iowa  and  Wisconsin,  and  the  southern  Illinois  democratic 
papers  followed  him  in  advocating  annexation  frankly  on  pro- 
slavery  grounds.  The  division  on  the  question  in  the  state 
was  as  much  sectional  as  political,  the  Chicago  Democrat  hav- 

327 


328  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

ing  little  to  say  on  the  question,  the  whig  papers,  such  as  the 
Telegraph  and  the  Chicago  Journal,  handling  it  severely  as  an 
iniquitous  southern  scheme  and  a  sop  to  the  slave  power.1 
After  the  presidential  election  was  decided  and  during  the 
1844—1845  session  of  congress  the  various  papers  maintained 
their  former  attitudes  toward  the  measure,  the  Belleville  Advo- 
cate enthusiastically  approving,  the  Chicago  Journal  bitterly 
hostile,  and  the  others  saying  as  little  as  possible.  Actual  hos- 
tilities within  the  state,  however,  began  only  when  1845—1846 
saw  the  administration's  surrender  of  the  alleged  rights  of  the 
north  in  Oregon. 

Illinois'  interest  in  Oregon,  like  that  of  its  neighbor  state, 
Missouri,  and  of  the  latter's  political  prophet,  Thomas  Hart 
Benton,  was  on  account  of  its  geographical  outlook  most  lively. 
Semple  claimed  that  the  first  all-Oregon  meeting  held  in  the 
United  States  had  been  held  under  his  promotion  at  Alton  in 
1842.  Anger  over  England's  bullying  attitude  on  the  McLeod 
affair  and  the  Maine  boundary  added  fuel  to  the  flame.  The 
whig  papers,  though  some  of  them,  such  as  the  Telegraph, 
were  outspoken,  occasionally  entered  a  mild  dissent  against  too 
violent  a  policy.  When  in  the  presidential  contest  of  1 844  the 
cry  of  "54°  40'  or  fight"  had  triumphed,  the  Illinois  demo- 
crats affected  to  fear  lest  before  they  could  take  office  their 
opponents  would  compromise  the  rights  of  the  United  States  — 
for  had  it  not  been  such  secretaries  of  state  as  Adams,  Clay, 
and  Webster  who  had  yielded  the  rights  of  the  United  States 
on  Texas,  Maine,  and  on  Oregon  itself?2 

In  Illinois  the  democrats  were  vociferous  in  their  resolution 
that,  if  needs  must,  54°  40'  be  submitted  to  the  arbitrament  of 
the  sword.  Both  whigs  and  democrats  made  a  possible  naval 
war  on  the  lakes  an  argument  for  the  construction  of  a  ship 
canal  at  the  Illinois-Michigan  portage  as  an  essential  measure 

1  Belleville  Advocate,  November  9,  1843,  May  16,  1844;  Illinois  State  Regis- 
ter, May  24,  31,  June  14,  1844;  Alton  Telegraph,  August  31,  October  12,  1844; 
Chicago  Journal,  July  27,  1844. 

2  Belleville  Advocate,  February  27,  November  4,  1841,  December  29,  1842, 
January  9,  1845;  Chicago  American,  April  25,  1842;  Alton  Telegraph,  Novem- 
ber 12,  1842;  Illinois  State  Register,  February  17.  March  24,  April  14,  1843. 


SPLIT   OF   DEMOCRATIC    PARTY        329 

of  preparedness,  and  writings  of  Lieutenant  Maury  on  the  sub- 
ject under  the  name  of  "  Harry  Bluff  "  were  widely  copied  and 
commented  on.3  By  fall  however,  the  whig  papers  declared 
their  belief  that  the  democratic  administration  in  the  end  would 
back  down  —  a  forecast  verified  by  Folk's  first  offer  of  a  com- 
promise on  the  49°  line. 

Folk's  withdrawal  from  54°  40'  threw  into  a  quandary 
Illinois  democrats  with  northern  sympathies  who  wished  to 
remain  loyal  to  the  party.  John  Wentworth,  the  Chicago  con- 
gressman, was  especially  hard  beset.  Along  with  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  Joseph  P.  Hoge,  John  A.  McClernand,  and  Robert 
Smith  of  Illinois  he  voted  among  the  "  immortal  ten "  who 
declared  that  the  Oregon  question  was  no  longer  a  subject  for 
compromise.  In  debate  Wentworth,  Ficklin,  and  Douglas 
insisted  that  Oregon  and  Texas  had  been  linked  by  the  Balti- 
more convention  and  that  the  faith  of  the  party  was  pledged 
to  achieve  both.  In  the  state  the  county  meetings  held  in  the 
early  winter,  while  not  taking  direct  issue  with  Polk,  urged  the 
maintenance  of  a  claim  to  all  Oregon,  and  the  state  convention 
resolved  that  since  the  proffered  compromise  of  49°  had  been 
rejected,  congress  should  dissolve  joint  occupancy. 

The  senate's  delay  in  adopting  the  resolution  giving  notice 
for  termination  of  the  joint  occupancy  added  new  fuel  to  the 
fire.  The  State  Register  was  confounded,  solemnly  warning 
the  southern  democrats  that  this  offense  would  never  be  for- 
given by  the  west.  A  meeting  of  voters  in  St.  Clair  county 
resolved  that  they  would  not  support  for  office  anyone  who 
submitted  to  a  compromise  on  49°.  They  proposed  William 
Allen  of  Ohio  as  the  next  president.  Wentworth  warned 
the  southern  democrats  that  their  course  on  the  Texas  and 
Oregon  question  was  fatally  weakening  the  party  in  the 
north.4 

In  March  and  early  April,  1846,  the  democrats  still  clung 

3  Belleville  Advocate,  April  17,  May  22,  1845;  Little  Fort  Porcupine,  May 
21,  1845;  Chicago  Democrat,  October  18,  1845. 

4  Illinois  State  Register,  January  30,   1846;   Belleville  Advocate,  April   u, 
1846;  Chicago  Democrat,  April  3,  1846. 


THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

to  the  hope  that  49°  had  been  offered  for  the  last  time  and  that 
thenceforth  the  nation  would  stand  firm  on  the  54°  40'  line. 
Both  whigs  and  democrats  for  the  moment  believed  war  immi- 
nent. The  county  meetings  and  conventions  held  in  McLean, 
Livingston,  Vermilion,  Lake,  De  Kalb,  and  Champaign,  while 
not  censuring  Polk  and  while  even  praising  him,  insisted  on  54° 
40'.  On  April  I,  however,  the  Chicago  Democrat  printed  a 
letter  from  Wentworth  admitting  the  49°  men  controlled  the 
senate.  The  State  Register  was  very  bitter  in  its  comment. 
The  Galena  Jeffersonian,  the  Chicago  Journal  remarked,  had 
read  Polk  out  of  the  party  on  the  subject,  but  predicted  that 
the  54°  40'  men  in  Egypt  would  soon  tack.  The  whigs,  while 
far  from  united  on  the  question,  had  avoided  committing  them- 
selves unfavorably.5  In  the  democratic  party,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  question  had  created  a  bitter  feeling  between  the 
northern  and  southern  wings  of  the  party. 

The  ill-feeling  aroused  by  the  prospective  settlement  of 
Oregon  on  the  basis  of  49°  was  stirred  up  to  fever  heat  by  the 
violation  of  northern  interests  caused  by  Polk's  veto  of  the 
river  and  harbor  bill,  and  here  too  the  measure  divided  the 
party  in  the  state  against  itself.  For  years  democrats  inter- 
ested in  federal  internal  improvements  had  had  to  steer  a  care- 
ful course  to  avoid  the  implications  of  the  growing  strict 
construction  doctrines  of  the  party.  In  Illinois  the  difficulty 
was  complicated  by  the  fact  that  the  interests  of  the  various 
parts  of  the  state  were  diverse  and  even  conflicting.  While 
Wentworth  was  interested  primarily  in  the  lakes,  Ficklin  and 
Robert  Smith  were  anxious  for  the  continuance  of  the  Cumber- 
land road,  and  McClernand  and  Smith  for  the  improvement  of 
navigation  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi;  and  on  grounds  of 
principle  they  voted  repeatedly  against  bills  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  lake  harbors.  From  lack  of  unity,  the  seven  Illinois 
congressmen  that  took  their  seats  for  the  first  time  in  1843— 
1 844  were  not  able  to  achieve  the  results  that  might  have  been 

5  Chicago  Dally  Journal,  April  5,  July  6,  18,  1846;  Belleville  Advocate, 
March  14,  April  4,  25,  May  21,  August  6,  1846;  Illinois  State  Register,  March 
27,  1846;  Chicago  Democrat,  May  26,  June  16,  1846. 


SPLIT   OF   DEMOCRATIC   PARTY       331 

expected  and  in  the  end  only  produced  jealousies  and  divisions 
in  the  party  through  the  state. 

In  session  after  session  the  same  divergencies  of  interest 
divided  the  Illinois  members.  Thus  in  1844  Wentworth  and 
Douglas  labored  hard  to  prove  constitutional  in  the  western 
river  and  harbor  bill  the  Illinois  river  appropriation  —  a  cru- 
cial item  from  the  strict  constructionist  viewpoint.  Finally 
McClernand,  Robert  Smith,  and  Ficklin  voted  against  the  bill, 
the  two  former  alleging  constitutional  grounds  and  meager 
appropriations  for  the  Ohio.  This  vote  drew  down  on 
Smith  the  censure  of  the  Belleville  Advocate.  Wentworth  too 
was  much  exercised  that  Ficklin,  Hoge,  McClernand,  and 
Smith  voted  against  the  eastern  harbor  bill;  he  believed  com- 
plaisance in  that  direction  to  be  a  fertile  source  of  votes  for 
western  measures.  He  feared  that  Tyler's  veto  of  the  eastern 
bill  would  cause  retaliation  on  the  west,  believing  the  veto  to 
be  the  work  of  men  who  desired  to  divide  east  and  west.6 

When  in  the  1844—1845  session  a  similar  sectional  war  in 
congress  ended  in  the  pocketing  of  the  river  and  harbor  bill, 
the  western  internal  improvement  men  sought  to  persuade  the 
south  of  its  community  of  interest  with  the  west  in  internal 
improvement.  The  Memphis  convention,  largely  attended  by 
Illinois  whigs  and  democrats,  represented  an  attempt  to  bring 
about  such  a  union,  on  the  policy  of  the  improvement  of  north 
and  south  transportation  routes  through  the  great  valley  for 
needs  of  peace  or  of  war.  The  west,  from  the  fact  that  its 
commerce  passed  out  through  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was 
reminded  of  the  value  of  coast  defenses  and  lighthouses  in 
Florida  as  well  as  of  similar  improvements  on  the  lakes.  The 
convention  urged  the  ship  canal  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the 
Illinois  river,  the  completion  of  the  Cumberland  road  to  Fort 
Smith,  Arkansas,  improvement  of  lakes,  harbors,  and  northern 
rivers,  a  military  road  from  Memphis  to  Texas,  and  an  armory 

0  Congressional  Globe,  28  congress,  i  session,  568 ;  Belleville  Advocate, 
May  16,  June  6,  July  18,  1846;  Chicago  Democrat,  August  14,  1844,  declared  the 
exertion  of  Wentworth  among  others  induced  Tyler  not  to  veto  the  "western 
harbor  bill;"  ibid.,  October  21,  1845. 


332  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

at  Fort  Massac.  The  campaign  for  these  and  for  the  ship 
canal  was  committed  to  the  charge  of  committees  of  Illinois 
men,  whigs  and  democrats.  McClernand  thought  the  move- 
ment calculated  especially  to  give  southern  Illinois  the  impetus 
for  the  lack  of  which  its  growth  had  been  retarded.7  If  ques- 
tion of  constitutional  principle  did  not  again  intervene,  the 
democratic  party  saw  an  opportunity  once  more  to  be  in 
complete  accord. 

The  session  of  congress  of  1845—1846  presented  to  the 
democratic  party  the  crucial  test  of  its  newly  found  unity.  The 
Cumberland  road  project  was  again  brought  forward  by 
Ficklin.  Breese,  however,  opposed  land  donations  for  it;  and 
the  measure,  to  the  wrath  of  the  Sangamo  Journal  was  killed 
by  constitutional  arguments  despite  the  attempt  of  its  friends 
to  demonstrate  it  as  an  implied  compact  between  the  federal 
government  and  the  new  states.8  Meanwhile  Wentworth 
devoted  himself  especially  to  the  river  and  harbor  bill.  He 
was  afraid  that  amendments  might  be  added  that  would  tran- 
scend Folk's  conservative  constitutional  scruples.  One  of  the 
items  that  he  feared  was  the  Cumberland  road,  another  the 
Louisville  and  Portland  canal  and  still  another  the  ship  canal 
to  the  Illinois  river.9  The  latter  project  was  in  danger  con- 
tinually because  according  to  Wentworth  the  Indiana  delegation 
was  determined  that  any  communication  of  the  sort  must  come 
through  their  state.  Whenever  the  Illinois  river  was  inserted 
in  the  bill,  they  at  once  added  the  Wabash.  Wentworth  com- 
plained that  its  enemies  always  sought  to  kill  the  bill  by 
dragging  in  rivers  and  harbors  of  their  own  or  by  including 
such  projects  as  that  of  the  Tennessee  river,  sure  to  be  vetoed. 

It  was  on  the  east  emphatically  that  Wentworth  placed  his 
reliance  for  the  securing  of  the  appropriations.  He  hoped  to 

7  Alton  Telegraph,  June  21,  28,  1845;  Chicago  Democrat,  June  25,  July  23, 
1845;  Belleville  Advocate,  October  n,  December  6,  1845;  Illinois  State  Register, 
June  20,  September  5,  October  21,  1845. 

8  Congressional  Globe,  29  congress,   i   session,  84,   195,   383,  600,  615,   622; 
Alton  Telegraph,  January  31,  April  18,  1846;  Sangamo  Journal,  April  23,  1846. 

9  Congressional  Globe,  29  congress,  i  session,  354;   Alton  Telegraph,  March 
21,  1846. 


SPLIT   OF   DEMOCRATIC   PARTY       333 

unite  the  Illinois  and  Indiana  members  to  vote  for  an  appropri- 
ation for  Lake  Champlain  to  conciliate  the  New  Yorkers, 
whom  he  presumed  were  the  friends  of  western  internal  im- 
provements. As  always  he  insisted  that  the  opponents  of  better 
lake  harbors  resided  in  the  west  and  south,  not  in  the  east. 
Late  in  February  he  hoped  that  the  bill  would  have  clear  sailing, 
but  then  came  the  attacks  on  strict  construction  grounds  from 
such  men  as  R.  Barnwell  Rhett.  In  April  the  Chicago  Demo- 
crat despondingly  remarked  that  the  improvement  of  the  lakes 
would  be  defeated  between  the  whigs,  who  would  vote  for  any- 
thing to  revive  Clay's  old  system,  and  the  southern  men  who, 
to  kill  the  bill,  would  vote  for  any  amendment.10 

The  whig  papers  of  Illinois  were  inclined  to  regard  the 
affair  as  none  of  theirs.  They  predicted  the  veto  of  the  meas- 
ure, saying  that  Polk  as  a  result  of  the  party  straddle  on 
interstate  improvements  had  not  been  pledged.  The  Tele- 
graph gave  Wentworth  full  credit  for  his  efforts  for  the 
measure,  especially  his  success  in  retaining  the  St.  Louis 
harbor,  while  declaring  that  an  appropriation  for  the  Cum- 
berland road  or  the  Illinois  river  would  defeat  the  bill.  The 
Chicago  Journal,  nearer  home,  declared  that  Wentworth 
had  done  his  best  but  was  devoid  of  influence;  and  after  the 
veto  of  the  measure  the  whig  newspapers  joined  in  denouncing 
Polk.11 

In  addition  to  his  troubles  in  Washington,  Wentworth 
again  had  the  handicap  of  a  divided  congressional  delegation 
and  a  divided  party  at  home.  When  Polk  vetoed  the  bill  on 
constitutional  grounds,  McClernand  was  one  of  his  confidants; 
and  both  he  and  Ficklin  voted  against  it.  The  State  Register 
was  unsympathetic;  as  early  as  April  3,  in  1846,  it  regretted 
that  the  Mississippi  appropriations  were  in  a  bill  with  so  many 
unsound  items;  and  it  approved  Polk's  veto  saying  that  if  he 

10  Chicago  Democrat,  February  23,  March  u,  30,  1846;  Alton  Telegraph, 
March  14,  1846;    Congressional  Globe,  29  congress,  i  session,  438,  479,  485,  493, 
496,  506,  516,  522,  527. 

11  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  March  19,  28,  May  26,   1846;  Alton   Telegraph, 
April  4,  1846. 


334  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

erred,  he  erred  on  the  side  of  safety.  In  various  sections  of 
the  state  the  party  presses  took  the  same  ground.  In  the  Mili- 
tary Tract  the  Pike  County  Sentinel  and  the  Quincy  Herald 
approved  the  veto.  The  Charleston  Globe,  in  eastern  Illinois, 
and  the  W abash  Democrat,  at  Shawneetown,  opposed  a  river 
and  harbor  convention.  On  this  movement,  the  Register  was 
inclined  to  look  askance  and  the  Washington  Union,  whether 
from  personal  spite  at  Wentworth,  from  sectional  jealousy,  or 
from  disdain  of  logrolling,  openly  attacked  it.12  Polk  could 
count  on  support  for  his  act  in  a  state  whose  material  interests 
he  had  injured. 

The  veto  made  Wentworth's  position  as  a  good  party  man 
extremely  difficult.  To  his  constituents  he  had  to  admit  that  it 
was  of  no  avail  during  the  remainder  of  Folk's  term  to  hope 
for  river  and  harbor  appropriations.  Henceforth  he  said  if 
the  people  wanted  harbors  they  must  elect  "northern"  men  to 
congress.  The  whig  papers  went  further  in  expressing  popular 
disgust.  They  denounced  Polk  as  a  traitor  to  his  party  on  the 
tariff,  Oregon,  and  the  river  and  harbor  bill.  The  Chicago 
Journal  commented  sarcastically  on  the  sale  of  the  harbor 
machinery  at  Chicago,  denouncing  Polk's  treachery  and  his 
economizing  at  the  expense  of  human  lives.  The  ships  in  the 
harbor  half-masted  their  colors  when  the  news  arrived.  In  the 
river  counties  the  cant  term  for  snags  became  Polk  stalks,  and 
a  sandbar  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chicago  harbor  was  named 
Mount  Polk.13 

Out  of  the  indignation  in  the  sections  and  parties  interested 
in  internal  improvements  came  an  extra-partisan  movement  of 
protest  culminating  in  the  river  and  harbor  convention  of  1847. 
Loose  construction  in  the  direction  of  internal  improvements 

12  Congressional  Globe,  29  congress,  i  session,  530;    Illinois  State  Register, 
April  3,  August  21,  September  4,  October  9,  1846;   Chicago  Dally  Journal,  Oc- 
tober 14,  1846;  Chicago  Democrat,  July  2,  1847;  Little  Fort  Porcupine,  November 
3,  1846. 

13  Chicago  Democrat,  April  18,  1846;  Chicago  Dally  Journal,  August  10,  n, 
12,  19,  November  17,  1846,  May  13,  1847;  Sangamo  Journal,  August  20,  1846; 
Alton  Telegraph,  August  28,  November  6,  1846.    The  Chicago  Democrat,  Novem- 
ber 13,   1846,  professed  to  see  in  the  veto  the  cause  of  inroads  made  by  the 
whigs  on  the  democratic  strength  in  the  lake  congressional  districts. 


SPLIT   OF   DEMOCRATIC   PARTY       335 

emphatically  was  good  whig  doctrine,  and  domestic  indignation 
in  the  localities  affected  chimed  in  with  whig  principles.  The 
first  call  for  a  convention  by  the  Buffalo  Commercial  was  wel- 
comed by  whig  papers  and  by  the  democratic  ones  concerned 
by  their  local  interests.  The  Chicago  Journal,  September  15, 
suggested  that  it  be  held  July  4,  1847,  at  Chicago.  The  Chi- 
cago Democrat  hesitated  for  several  weeks  and  finally 
pronounced  for  it.  The  convention,  held  at  Chicago,  de- 
cided that  both  whigs  and  democrats  should  apply  to  every 
candidate  the  test  of  loyalty  to  river  and  harbor  appropria- 
tions.14 

Wentworth,  however  deeply  provoked  as  he  was,  was  not 
yet  ready  to  abandon  the  party.  Again  and  again  he  protested 
that  river  and  harbor  appropriations  were  good  democratic 
doctrines  despite  Polk  and  grandfather  Ritchie,  the  "  Nous 
Verrons"  of  the  Washington  Union.15  Wentworth  had  led 
an  assault  in  congress  the  previous  session  on  the  tea  and  coffee 
taxes  proposed  by  the  administration;  and  he  and  Douglas, 
who  certainly  was  not  warm  in  the  fight  on  rivers  and  harbors, 
joined  in  a  bitter  war  on  Thomas  Ritchie,  the  editor  of  the 
"organ."  In  the  face  of  the  south  Wentworth  flaunted  the 
doctrine  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  —  yet  at  the  same  time  he 
professed  his  willingness  to  support  the  nominee  of  the  Balti- 
more convention.  Wentworth  manifestly,  even  while  making 
war  on  the  administration,  was  determined  not  to  break  with 
his  party. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  by  his  repeated  assaults  upon  the 
administration  and  its  policies  he  was  wreaking  a  vengeance  on 
the  leaders  of  his  party  past  his  power  to  undo.  Through  the 
patient  work  of  years  in  the  columns  of  the  Chicago  Democrat 
he  had  acquired  personal  influence  over  the  farmers  of  northern'' 
Illinois  that  one  rival  after  another  had  tried  in  vain  to  shake. 
Yet  the  men  whom  year  in  and  year  out  he  had  trained  in  the 
democratic  principles  of  the  older  school  were  not  men  to 

14  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  September  9,    15,   24,   1846;    Chicago  Democrat, 
September  29,  1846,  July  13,  1847. 

15  Ibid.,  July  30,  1847. 


336  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

forget;  they  refused  to  follow  Wentworth  when  he  pronounced 
the  nomination  of  northern  men  like  Cass  sufficient  of  a  solace 
for  the  wrongs  of  the  north  on  Oregon  and  Texas,  on  river  and 
harbor  vetoes,  and  on  the  aggressions  of  the  slave  power  that 
the  older  democracy  had  tolerated,  half  conscious  that  it  vio- 
lated its  principles.  Abolition  had  gained  ground  rapidly  in 
the  north  during  late  years,  and  the  time  was  inevitably  coming 
when  the  cumulative  effort  of  southern  aggressions  would  open 
the  eyes  of  the  northwest  to  the  fact  that  "  democrat"  no  longer 
meant  what  it  had  in  the  thirties.  It  was  Wentworth's  part  in 
politics  to  state  the  premises,  but  only  at  the  last  to  accept  the 
inevitable  conclusions  that  flowed  from  them.  In  1847  ne  nad 
denounced  the  policies  that  to  the  end  of  the  "  Old  South  "  were 
to  dominate  the  democratic  party,  but  till  1856  he  called  him- 
self a  democrat. 

At  the  outset  of  the  campaign  of  1848  the  whigs  at  every 
point  had  the  tactical  advantage.  The  public  land  question 
during  the  administration  of  Tyler  and  Polk,  so  far  as  Illinois 
was  concerned,  had  been  burning  itself  out.  In  the  spring  of 
1841  whigs  and  democrats  in  the  state  set  off  against  each 
other  the  distribution  bill  of  the  whigs  and  the  land  cession 
scheme  of  Calhoun.  The  democratic  papers,  of  course, 
opposed  the  whig  distribution  bill  which  passed  through  con- 
gress in  the  special  session  of  1841.  The  bill  itself,  however, 
contained  a  provision  suspending  its  operation  while  import 
duties  in  excess  of  twenty  cents  on  the  dollar  were  in  existence. 
A  bill  repealing  this  proviso  was  pocketed  by  Tyler  in  1 842,  so 
that  for  all  practical  purposes  the  bill  was  a  dead  letter  except 
in  the  preemption  provisions  about  which  the  whigs  cared  the 
least.  Land  cession  measures  were  intermittently  brought  for- 
ward by  Illinois  congressmen  in  1844  and  1845—1846.  In 
1846  a  graduation  measure  was  brought  forward,  argued  at 
great  length  with  little  originality  and  finally  defeated  on  a 
petition  by  eastern  members  who  voted  to  lay  it  on  the  table  in 
retaliation  for  the  votes  of  western  congressmen  against  the 
eastern  harbor  bill.  A  graduation  bill  was  introduced  at  the 


SPLIT   OF   DEMOCRATIC   PARTY       337 

next  session  but  came  to  nothing.16  With  lands  being  sold  off 
rapidly  Illinois  was  fast  ceasing  to  be  a  public  land  state,  and 
her  interest  in  a  liberal  land  policy  and  in  the  party  that  had 
promoted  it  was  becoming  correspondingly  less. 

The  war  with  Mexico,  too,  was  far  more  advantageous 
from  the  point  of  view  of  party  politics  to  the  whigs  than  to 
the  democrats.  At  the  outset  the  best  the  Register  could  do 
was  to  attempt  to  fix  on  various  whigs  and  whig  organs  the 
charge  of  opposition  to  the  war  carried  to  unpatriotic  extremes, 
but  the  attempt  was  not  very  successful.  It  early  expressed  the 
desire  of  a  speedy  peace  with  Mexico  in  which  Mexico  might 
under  the  guise  of  a  sale  compound  her  debts  to  the  United 
States  by  the  cession  of  territory  in  a  moderate  amount.  It 
assailed  the  whigs  severely  for  trying  to  make  the  war  out  to 
be  a  war  of  conquest,  although  at  other  times  it  preached  the 
doctrine  of  manifest  destiny  for  the  extension  ultimately  of  the 
territory  of  the  United  States  not  merely  to  California  but  to 
Darien  and  the  Canadas.  The  obstinacy  of  the  Mexicans  in 
refusing  to  admit  that  they  had  succumbed  to  the  manifest 
destiny  of  Anglo-Saxonism  compelled  the  democrats  to  look 
forward  to  a  long  and  obstinate  war  to  bring  them  to  terms ; 
and  such  abortive  measures  as  Polk's  safe-conduct  to  Santa 
Anna  into  Mexico,  which  only  permitted  him  to  become  the 
arch  leader  of  the  opposition  there,  were  much  better  cam- 
paign material  for  the  whigs  than  for  the  democrats.  By  the 
summer  of  1847  tne  Belleville  Advocate  was  compelled  to 
admit  that  an  occupation  of  extensive  territory  was  necessary 
for  an  indefinite  period  before  it  might  be  hoped  that  Mexico 
would  listen  to  reason.  A  war  with  no  apparent  end  is  not  an 
attractive  plank  in  the  platform  of  an  American  party.17 

16  Sangamo  Journal,  May  21,  28,  September   17,   1841 ;   Alton   Telegraph, 
April  24,  1841 ;  Illinois  State  Register,  August  27,    1841 ;   Belleville  Advocate, 
October  8,  1841 ;    Congressional  Globe,  28  congress,  i  session,  443,  28  congress,  2 
session,  66,  29  congress,  i  session,  172,  29  congress,  2  session,  41,  200,  528 ;    Chi- 
cago Democrat,  July  21,  August  18,  1846. 

17  Illinois  State  Register,  June  26,  July  10,  24,  31,  August  14,  November  6, 
1846;  Belleville  Advocate,  October  29,  December  31,  1846,  June  3,  October  14, 
November  4,  December  2,  1847. 


338  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

It  was  with  every  tactical  advantage  that  the  whigs 
approached  the  election  of  1848.  As  the  Alton  Telegraph 
outlined  the  situation,  the  administration  had  tried  to  cover  up 
its  retreat  on  the  Oregon  question  with  a  "  little  war  "  only  to 
find  Mexico  unexplainably  obstinate,  and  further  had  made  the 
mistake  of  not  drawing  generously  enough  on  the  enthusiasm 
and  patriotism  of  the  country  to  strike  a  decisive  blow.  On 
larger  issues  the  paper  a  year  before  had  pointed  out  that  at 
the  time  the  democrats  were  committed  by  their  acts  to  the  ultra 
stand  on  the  tariff  and  slavery  and  must  expect  the  defection  to 
the  whigs  from  their  own  or  from  third  party  banners  of  tariff 
democrats,  native  Americans,  and  abolitionists.  The  cry  of 
democracy  and  the  name  of  Jackson  would  no  longer  serve  to 
hold  the  true  democrats  in  line,  and  the  locofocos  would  find 
themselves  left  alone.  The  whigs  need  only  take  issue  fairly 
on  the  tariff  and  the  subtreasury.18 

Curiously  the  whigs  at  first  were  inclined  to  pass  over  the 
advantage  they  might  enjoy  in  running  the  hero  of  Buena 
Vista  as  their  candidate.  In  the  summer  of  1847  the  Chicago 
Journal  seemed  to  incline  strongly  in  the  direction  of  Henry 
Clay  as  the  old  and  trusted  exponent  of  whig  principles  who 
alone  could  rescue  the  nation  from  the  crisis  to  which  the  policy 
of  the  administration  both  foreign  and  domestic  had  brought 
it.  G.  T.  M.  Davis,  one  of  the  two  editors  of  the  Alton  Tele- 
graph, took  a  similar  stand  late  in  1847,  claiming  that  Zachary 
Taylor  in  view  of  his  treatment  of  the  volunteers  was  not 
entitled  to  the  support  of  the  whigs,  and  further  that  they  were 
on  the  verge  of  a  mistake  such  as  that  of  1840.  John  Bail- 
hache,  the  other  editor,  was  inclined  to  agree  with  his  colleague 
in  regard  to  Clay,  though  fearing  that  his  speech  against  the 
war  and  conquest  had  lessened  his  chances  in  the  west.  The 
Telegraph,  however,  took  exception  to  the  action  of  an  unin- 
structed  high  convention  in  nominating  Taylor,  professing  that 
he  had  lost  very  much  in  popularity  in  the  last  six  months 

18  Alton   Telegraph,  September   n,  November  20,   1846,   October   15,    1847; 
Sangamo  Journal,  May  7,  1846. 


339 

by  his  refusal  to  accept  a  party  nomination  and  by  the  luster 
of  Scott's  triumphs;  but  Bailhache  professed  his  willingness  to 
support  Taylor.  The  Taylor  movement  indeed  was  one  that 
had  begun  in  the  preceding  spring.  The  Sangamo  Journal  had 
come  out  for  him  on  April  8,  1847.  The  Quincy  Whig  and 
the  Morgan  Journal  had  both  declared  for  him  a  few  days  later. 
The  Chicago  Journal  and  the  Alton  Telegraph  during  the 
spring  had  both  praised  Taylor  to  the  skies  without  coming  out 
specifically  in  his  favor.19  By  the  fall  the  democratic  papers 
were  predicting  that  Taylor  would  be  eliminated  in  favor  of 
Clay  or  some  similar  candidate,  but  finally  they  inclined  to  the 
belief  that  the  Illinois  whigs  would  acquiesce  in  his  choice. 

With  a  military  hero  as  a  candidate,  with  the  favorable 
position  on  every  issue,  with  their  opponents  torn  by  personal 
and  sectional  feuds  as  well  as  divided  on  political  principle, 
the  triumph  of  the  whigs  in  the  nation  in  1848  was  assured.  In 
Illinois  they  were  not  successful.  So  strongly  cemented  was 
the  fabric  of  the  democratic  party,  so  great  was  the  power  of 
the  democratic  name  that  the  destruction  of  the  party  suprem- 
acy there  had  to  be  the  work  of  years.  That  supremacy  was 
not  to  be  ended  by  any  defection  to  the  old  rival  parties.  The 
whig  name  and  organization  had  first  to  disappear.  Yet  the 
forces  in  the  democratic  party  that  ultimately  were  to  end  the 
day  of  its  power  were,  by  1 847,  plainly  apparent  to  the  student. 
In  the  study  of  the  political  as  of  the  animal  organism  the  first 
detection  of  a  morbid  condition  is  more  significant  than  the 
following  out  of  its  development  to  the  inevitable  result. 

19  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  April  8,  28,  29,  May  8,  27,  29,  September  16,  1847: 
Alton  Telegraph,  April  30,  December  10,  31,  1847;  Belleville  Advocate,  October 
7,  December  9,  1847,  February  2,  1848. 


XIX.     THE  MORMON  WAR 

OF  ALL  the  settlements  inspired  by  peculiar  ideas  or 
beliefs  that  grew  up  on  the  fertile  soil  of  the  Military 
Tract,  the  most  ambitious,  the  most  tragic,  the  one  most  abid1 
ing  in  its  effects  on  the  nation,  if  not  on  the  state,  was  the 
community  of  Latter  Day  Saints  or  Mormons  at  Nauvoo. 
The  religion  revealed  by  Joseph  Smith  drew  converts  from  the 
old  and  new  world  until  almost  in  a  night  a  city  of  perhaps 
fifteen  thousand  people  grew  up  in  Illinois  as  the  capital  of  an 
even  larger  community,  and  after  thus  overtopping  Alton,  and 
for  a  time  even  Chicago,  passed  away  as  suddenly  as  it  rose. 
Today  only  a  village  of  scarce  a  thousand  can  recall  to  the 
student  of  the  past  the  passions,  the  ambitions,  and  the 
tragedies  of  the  holy  city  of  the  Mormons  in  Illinois. 

Of  the  Mormon  belief  itself  it  is  difficult  to  write  with  the 
balanced  detachment  of  the  historical  student.  The  story  of 
the  miraculous  golden  plates,  protected  by  the  direct  interven- 
tion of  angels  from  improper  approach  in  their  hiding  place  on 
the  hill  at  Palmyra,  New  York,  which  had  seen  the  overthrow 
of  the  Nephites  by  the  barbarian  invaders,1  is  too  much  for 
this  age  of  incredulity  to  accept;  the  evidence  of  the  eleven  wit- 
nesses who  testified  to  the  existence  of  the  plates  would  hardly 
survive  the  cross-examination  of  a  court  of  law.  The  Book  of 
Mormon,  which  Smith  claimed  he  had  translated  from  the 
plates  by  direct  divine  assistance,  is  a  book  of  tedious  histories, 
each  of  which  seems  to  the  careless  reader  much  like  the  rest. 
It  contains  blunders  in  grammar  which,  if  we  accept  Joseph 
Smith's  account  of  the  translation,  must  be  laid  to  the  charge 
of  the  divine  power  that  word  by  word  gave  him  the  English 
equivalents  of  the  characters  on  the  plates.  The  evidence  that 

1  Times  and  Seasons,  April  15,  1841. 

340 


THE    MORMON   WAR  341 

the  book  is  really  an  historical  novel  written  by  the  Reverend 
Solomon  Spaulding  is  unsatisfactory;  in  any  case  from  a  liter- 
ary point  of  view  the  book  is  incapable  of  conferring  honor  on 
its  author.  Had  Mormonism  begun  and  ended  with  the  book 
on  the  golden  plates,  it  would  have  made  little  noise  in  the 
world. 

Doctrinally  Mormonism  has  little  that  is  distinctive.  Its 
theology  is  usually  referred  to  Sidney  Rigdon,  a  Campbellite 
preacher,  who,  as  an  early  convert,  may  have  devised  its  creed. 
Mormonism  based  itself  on  a  literal  interpretation  of  the  word 
of  God;  it  adopted  from  the  Old  Testament  what  is  least 
spiritual  in  the  stories  of  the  patriarchs  and  neglected  what 
is  finest  in  the  New.  The  problem  of  how  God  can  be  man 
that  perplexed  early  Christian  theology  and  that  was  but 
partially  solved  by  the  doctrine  of  the  two  natures,  Mor- 
monism met  in  easier  fashion — its  God  was  a  God  with 
passions  like  men,  with  physical  parts,  the  God  who  turned  his 
.hinder  parts  to  Moses,  a  God  who  might  delight  in  blood,  a 
God  from  whom  frail  men  might  expect  not  mercy  but  sym- 
pathy. In  place  of  the  authority  of  an  infallible  church, 
speaking  with  the  weight  of  eighteen  Christian  centuries,  or  by 
the  application  to  a  holy  book  of  reason  sent  from  God,  Mor- 
monism substituted  a  religion  of  revelation  to  Joseph  Smith  by 
a  God  who  could  announce  the  names  of  the  trustees  of  the 
Nauvoo  House  and  prescribe  that  his  servant  Joseph  Smith 
and  his  seed  should  forever  receive  free  board  there. 

To  the  revelation  Smith  ever  turned  to  keep  his  followers 
in  order.  There  were  revelations  commanding  that  this  man 
should  tarry  here  and  that  man  should  go  there,  revelations 
admonishing,  reproving,  and  praising  his  followers  by  name. 
By  revelation  God  commanded  the  building  of  the  Temple, 
and  by  revelation  he  ordained  also  the  discipline  of  the  Mor- 
mon faith.  By  revelation  Smith  held  under  control  the  fol- 
lowers who  had  swallowed  greedily  the  marvel  of  the  dead 
races  of  the  past  and  of  the  golden  plates.  The  church  serv- 
ices were  ceremonious;  the  sacraments  were  rites  to  preserve 


342  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  faithful  from  the  devil  and  to  comfort  their  souls  with  the 
assurance  of  salvation  for  some  specific  performance.  Mor- 
monism,  always  prefacing  its  teaching  with  a  reflection  on  the 
dissensions  and  differences  of  opinion  on  matters  of  faith  of 
the  Christian  denominations,  proffered  a  certainty  and  counted 
its  converts  by  ten  thousands. 

The  influence  of  Smith's  character  on  the  development  of 
Mormonism  cannot  be  overestimated.  Though  educated  only 
by  his  own  efforts  and  not  highly  intellectual,  he  was  possessed 
of  a  vigorous  will  in  a  powerful  body;  and  he  ruled  his  fol- 
lowers with  absolute  sway.  He  had  efficient  adjuncts  in  his 
brothers,  notably  Hyrum  Smith,  and  in  his  father  and  mother. 
The  family  traced  its  descent  from  a  long  line  of  Puritan  ances- 
tors and  pointed  with  pride  to  its  record  in  Indian  wars  and  the 
Revolution;  although  in  its  New  York  home  its  reputation 
had  not  been  of  special  distinction,  on  the  larger  stage  on  which 
it  was  called  to  play  it  seconded  with  reasonably  good  sup- 
port Joseph  Smith's  performance  in  the  role  of  p/ophet.la 

But  although  he  was  able  to  gather  to  the  standard  of  his 
religion  a  hundred  thousand  converts,  at  first  chiefly  New  Eng- 
landers  and  New  Yorkers  already  having  strong  religious 
traditions,  Smith  had  certain  limitations  in  his  character  that 
fatally  hindered  him  from  organizing  them  into  an  irresistible 
phalanx.  He  could  dominate  his  humbler  followers,  but  there 
his  power  stopped.  He  had  not  the  imagination  necessary  to 
comprehend  or  to  harmonize  with  the  men  outside  his  faith  with 
whom  he  had  to  deal;  neither  was  he  a  judge  of  the  character 
and  ability  of  the  men  that  he  gathered  around  him.  Hence, 
perhaps  because  of  the  moral  weaknesses  of  his  religious  dis- 
pensations—  though  Smith  to  the  last  retained  his  grasp  on  the 
church  —  the  history  of  Mormonism  is  the  history  of  the  seces- 
sion of  one  trusted  leader  after  another;  and  Smith,  not  under- 
standing or  grasping  the  forces  of  the  American  frontier,  led 

10  Salisbury,  "The  Mormon  War  in  Hancock  County,"  Illinois  State  His- 
torical Society,  Journal,  8:281  ff. ;  Berry,  "The  Mormon  Settlements  in  Illinois," 
Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1906,  88  ff. 


THE   MORMON   WAR  343 

his  followers  repeatedly  to  failure  and  death  in  his  effort  to 
build  up  a  theocracy  in  the  American  backwoods.  In  so  doing 
he  arrayed  against  himself  and  his  followers  all  the  strongest 
elements  in  every  community  where  he  sought  to  establish  him- 
self. The  Christian  churches  were  outraged  by  his  denuncia- 
tion of  them;  the  powerful  proslavery  party  and  its  sym- 
pathizers were  incensed  at  his  antislavery  teaching;  and  the 
democracy  of  the  frontier  was  alarmed  at  his  autocracy  and  at 
his  insidious  interference  in  local  politics.  The  opposition  was 
intensified  by  the  provincialism  of  the  frontier,  impatient  of 
anything  different  from  itself  and  ready  to  enforce  conformity 
even  outside  the  law. 

Joseph  Smith  was  eighteen  years  old  when  in  1823  celestial 
visitants  first  announced  his  mission  to  him  and  showed  him 
the  plates,  and  twenty-two  when  the  golden  plates  were  finally 
given  to  him.  On  the  sixth  of  April,  1830,  the  church  was 
founded.  Then  followed  a  series  of  persecutions,  the  church 
seeking  a  home  now  at  Kirtland,  Ohio,  now  in  Missouri. 
Whether  the  fault  was  theirs  or  their  opponents',  whether  the 
causes  of  their  unpopularity  were  their  antislavery  sympathies, 
their  clannish  proclivities,  their  denunciation  of  the  churches, 
or  their  belief  that  the  wealth  of  the  gentiles  belonged  to  the 
Saints,  they  finally  in  1838  were  driven  out  of  Missouri,  with 
the  loss  of  their  property  and  of  many  lives,  and  took  refuge 
in  Illinois.2 

In  Illinois  they  encountered  a  favorable  reception.  Their 
doctrines  had  previously  awakened  passing  curiosity,  and  their 
earlier  persecution  at  the  hands  of  the  people  of  Missouri  had 
called  forth  occasional  comments  from  the  newspapers.  The 
outburst  of  1839  provoked  indignant  comment  from  the  Illinois 
papers,  especially  those  of  whig  political  affiliations,  possibly 
with  a  view  to  attracting  to  the  whig  standard  a  considerable 
body  of  voters.3 

-  Times  and  Seasons,  March  i,  April  i,  1842. 

^Chicago  Democrat,  December  3,  17,  1833,  June  18,  1834;  Chicago  American, 
July  23,  October  3,  1839,  June  1J.  *842;  Peoria  Register,  May  18,  July  27,  1839; 
Sangamo  Journal,  January  19,  1839;  Illinois  State  Register,  November  9,  1838. 


344  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

Mormonism  at  first  throve  in  Illinois.  On  October  5, 
1839,  Commerce,  the  site  of  Nauvoo,  was  adopted  as  a 
"  stake  "  of  the  church.  The  plat  of  the  city,  it  was  said  later, 
was  bought  of  a  Connecticut  firm  for  $53,500,  on  long  time. 
^A  remarkable  charter  was  secured  from  the  legislature  with 
little  trouble,  the  member  reporting  it  merely  saying  that  the 
document  had  an  extraordinary  militia  clause  which  he  believed 
harmless.  At  Nauvoo  a  stringent  temperance  ordinance  was 
passed,  if  not  enforced,  and  a  university  was  founded,  which 
had  sufficient  vitality  at  least  to  bestow  the  honorary  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Laws  on  James  Gordon  Bennett,  editor  of  the  New 
York  Herald.  Missionaries  were  sent  far  and  wide  in  the  old 
as  well  as  in  the  new  world  and  communities  of  Saints  grew  up 
in  other  places  than  Nauvoo;  though  even  as  early  as  1841,  it 
is  ominous  to  notice  the  appearance  against  them  of  charges 
of  immorality,  polygamy,  and  of  harboring  thieves.4 

The  beginning  of  the  troubles  of  the  Mormons  in  Illinois 
was  their  interference  as  a  body  in  politics.  Both  parties  had 
courted  them,  the  whigs  more  openly  than  the  democrats.  In 
the  presidential  election  of  1840,  the  Mormons  voted  for  all 
the  Harrison  electors  except  Abraham  Lincoln,  substituting 
the  name  of  one  democratic  elector  for  his,  as  they  alleged  out 
of  complacency  to  the  democrats.  Lincoln  was  too  good  a 
politician,  however,  not  to  congratulate  the  Mormons  warmly 
on  the  passage  of  their  charters  which  apparently  neither  party 
opposed.5 

Though  the  Mormons  voted  for  Stuart  in  1841,  the  demo- 
crats, for  some  reason,  won  the  race  for  the  favor  of  the 
prophet  On  January  I,  1842,  Times  and  Seasons,  the  official 
newspaper  of  the  Mormons,  published  a  proclamation  declar- 
ing that  the  Mormons  had  voted  for  Harrison  as  a  gallant 

*Times  and  Seasons,  December  30,  1839,  November  15,  1840,  March  i,  April 
i,  November  i,  December  15,  184.1,  January  i,  1842;  Chicago  American,  July  29, 
1842;  Warsaw  Signal,  February  10,  1845.  Bennett's  paper  was  indicated  as 
worthy  of  the  patronage  of  the  Saints,  its  attitude  toward  them  being  distinctly 
friendly. 

KTimes  and  Seasons,  January  i,  1841;  Chicago  American,  November  16,  26, 
December  26,  1840,  June  8,  1842. 


THE   MORMON   WAR  345 

soldier  but  that  he  was  now  dead  and  there  was  no  obligation 
on  them  to  support  his  friends.  u  Douglass,"  Smith  said,  "  is  a 
Master  Spirit,  and  his  friends  are  our  friends  —  we  are  willing 
to  cast  our  banners  on  the  air,  and  fight  by  his  side  in  the  cause 
of  humanity,  and  equal  rights  —  the  cause  of  liberty  and  the 
law.  Snyder,  and  Moore,  are  his  friends  —  they  are  ours." 
The  Sangamo  Journal  commented  that  if  this  pronunciamento 
did  not  set  the  citizens  of  the  state  to  thinking  it  did  not  know 
what  would.  The  democratic  papers  were  taken  a  little  back 
at  this  zealous  missionary  work  for  their  candidate,  the  Regis- 
ter refraining  from  publishing  the  address  in  full.6 

With  Smith  thus  openly  arrayed  on  the  side  of  his  oppo- 
nent, Duncan  in  the  campaign  of  1842  for  the  governorship 
naturally  took  an  anti-Mormon  stand.  He  attacked  the  loose 
provisions  of  the  Mormon  charters,  which,  by  allowing  laws 
to  be  passed  so  long  as  they  were  not  counter  to  the  state  or 
federal  constitutions,  permitted  the  city  council  a  power  of 
legislation  almost  concurrent  with  that  of  the  state.  He  pointed 
out  the  evil  legislation  which  had  been  passed  under  this 
arrangement,  such  as  the  ordinance  providing  heavy  fine  and 
imprisonment  for  any  person  speaking  lightly  of  the  estab- 
lished religion.  He  called  attention  to  the  violence  of  the 
Mormons  in  Missouri  and  to  the  charge  that  they  were 
more  or  less  openly  engaged  in  plots  against  their  old 
enemies  there.7  Suddenly  a  series  of  exposures  by  a  man 
hitherto  among  the  most  prominent  of  the  Mormon  leaders 
threw  the  whole  state  into  excitement  and  centered  the  climax 
of  the  campaign  on  the  Mormon  issue. 

General  John  C.  Bennett,  after  a  more  or  less  checkered 
career  in  the  west,  had  joined  the  Mormons  at  about  the  time 
of  their  arrival  in  Illinois.  Educated  in  medicine,  he  had 
become,  for  some  reason,  quartermaster-general  of  Illinois 
militia;  and  it  soon  became  generally  understood  among  the 

6  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  262;  Times  and  Seasons,  January  i,  1842;  San- 
gamo Journal,  January  21,  February  n,  1842;  Illinois  State  Register,  January 
14,  1842. 

7  Sangamt  Journal,  May  14,  June  10,  1842;  Alton  Telegraph,  May  14,  1842. 


346  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Mormons  that  he  was  a  military  genius  of  the  first  rank.  He 
had  had  a  large  share  in  the  political  negotiations  by  which  the 
Nauvoo  charter  was  secured,  and  he  was  generally  believed  to 
have  acted  as  a  political  go-between  on  other  occasions.  He 
commanded  the  "Nauvoo  Legion"  into  which  the  militia  of 
the  city  was  organized  and  wrote  communications  to  the  Times 
and  Seasons  signed  "Joab."  For  some  reason  he  quarreled 
with  Smith  and  was  cast  out  of  the  church  in  1842,  the  Mor- 
mons discovering  that  his  character  was  scabrous  in  the  extreme. 
The  tone  of  his  exposures  indicates  that  there  was  nothing 
inherently  improbable  in  the  charge,  though  it  is  a  little  strange 
that  his  iniquity  was  not  sooner  found  out.8 

Undoubtedly  Bennett  was  able  to  tell  many  things  regard- 
ing the  aims,  methods,  and  morals  of  the  Mormon  leaders; 
but  his  exposures  appear  unreliable.  It  is  possible  that  men  like 
the  Smiths,  who  were  prone  to  use  their  spiritual  authority  for 
their  pecuniary  advantage,  did  not  refrain  from  using  it  to 
win  over  women  devotees  who  took  their  fancy;  but  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  believe  that  the  elaborate  societies  and  orders  for 
debauchery  which  Bennett  detailed  existed  outside  his  own 
evil  imagination.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  doctrine  of  "  spir- 
itual wifery"  existed  at  so  early  a  date;  indeed,  the  Mormons 
claimed  that  the  doctrine  was  Bennett's  own  invention.  Too 
much  weight,  however,  should  not  be  given  to  the  denials  of 
Bennett's  charges  as  to  the  injuries  inflicted  or  attempted  to 
be  inflicted  on  Orson  Pratt,  Sidney  Rigdon,  and  Nancy  Rigdon. 
Certainly  in  spite  of  the  Mormon  denials  there  was  a  Danite 
band  with  which  Bennett  had  been  threatened;  but  as  a  whole, 
except  where  Bennett's  charges  can  be  verified  from  other 
sources,  they  are  to  be  discounted,  if  for  no  other  reason 
because  he  claimed  that  he  had  originally  joined  the  Mormons 
in  order  to  expose  them.9 

8  Times  and  Seasons,  January  i,  June  i,  1841,  August  i,  1842,  November  15, 
1844;  Wasp,  October  i,  1842. 

9  Times    and    Seasons,    April    15,    August    i,    September    15,    1842;    Wasp, 
September  3,   1842;    Chicago  American,  July  7,   1842;  Bennett,  History  of  the 
Saints,  5. 


THE    MORMON   WAR  347 

The  charges  of  Bennett,  especially  the  commentary  on  the 
danger  to  the  state  from  the  Mormon  scheme  supported  by 
Mormon  militia  with  state  arms  in  their  hands  and  the  accusa- 
tion of  attempts  on  the  life  of  Governor  Boggs  of  Missouri 
by  Mormons,  rang  through  the  whig  papers  in  the  last  weeks 
of  the  campaign;  but  the  Mormon  vote  was  cast  solidly  for 
Ford;  and  he  was  elected  by  a  safe  majority.  The  Telegraph 
was  inclined  to  believe  that  the  charges  because  of  apparent 
improbability  might  actually  have  injured  the  cause  of  the 
whigs.10 

In  his  message  of  1842  Ford  stated  that  the  people  of  the 
state  desired  that  the  Mormon  charters  be  modified  so  as  to 
allow  the  people  of  Nauvoo  no  greater  privileges  than  were 
enjoyed  by  their  fellow  citizens;  but  the  suggestion  was  not 
followed  out  by  the  legislature,  since  both  parties  hesitated  to 
take  a  decided  stand.  The  old  doctrine  of  vested  rights  was 
invoked  in  behalf  of  the  charters,  and  the  friends  of  the 
Mormons  were  always  ready  with  a  suggestion  to  repeal  all 
municipal  charters  in  case  that  of  Nauvoo  were  touched.11  In 
the  congressional  campaign  of  1843  tne  Mormon  votes  were 
apparently  thrown  for  Hoge,  the  democrat,  against  Cyrus 
Walker,  in  spite  of  what  the  Mormons  alleged  were  attempts 
on  the  part  of  the  whigs  to  win  them  over.  The  democrats 
declared  that  in  the  fifth  district  the  Mormons  under  the 
orders  of  the  prophet  voted  for  Orville  H.  Browning  against 
Douglas.12 

An  important  factor  in  the  conduct  of  the  Mormon  leaders 
was  their  constant  dread  of  extradition  to  Missouri.  On  Sep- 
tember 15,  1840,  Governor  Boggs  issued  a  requisition  on 
Illinois  for  the  surrender  of  Smith,  Rigdon,  and  others  as  fugi- 
tives from  justice.  The  warrants  were  not  executed;  but  in 

10  Alton  Telegraph,  August  13,  1842. 

11  Sangamo  Journal,  December  15,  1842,  January  19,  1843;  Alton  Telegraph, 
December  17,  24,  1842;  Illinois  State  Register,  March  31,  1843;  House  Journal, 
1842-1843,  i  session,  50. 

12  Chicago  Democrat,  August  23,   1843;  Nauvoo  Neighbor,  August  2,   Sep- 
tember 27,  1843;    Illinois  State  Register,  July  7,  September  22,  1843;    Ford,  His- 
tory of  Illinois,  317. 


348  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  next  June,  Smith  was  arrested  at  Carlin's  direction.  Doug- 
las in  the  Warren  county  court  on  June  10  decided  the  writ  was 
not  good.  In  August  Smith  and  Rockwell,  the  latter  Smith's 
alleged  tool  in  his  attempt  on  Governor  Boggs,  were  again 
arrested,  charged  with  the  attempted  murder;  but  they  eluded 
arrest;  and  on  the  accession  of  Ford,  Smith  asked  to  have 
the  validity  of  the  writ  tested.  Justin  Butterfield  argued 
Smith's  case  before  Judge  Pope  in  the  United  States  court  and 
secured  his  discharge.  Rockwell  was  finally  taken  to  Missouri, 
but  no  evidence  could  be  found  against  him  sufficient  to  hold 
him,  and  he  was  released.13 

Nauvoo  meanwhile  was  growing  rapidly.  How  prosperous 
the  enterprise  was  so  far  as  the  rank  and  file  are  concerned 
cannot  be  known  certainly.  Taking  the  accounts  of  the  Mor- 
mons themselves,  and  even  of  some  travelers,  one  gets  the 
impression  that  the  city  was  marked  by  a  prosperity  in  which 
all  citizens  alike  shared.  They  commented  on  the  industry 
of  the  inhabitants,  the  fine  brick  houses  rising  in  considerable 
numbers,  the  stately  public  structures  such  as  the  Nauvoo 
House  and  the  Temple.  Yet  as  one  studies  the  newspapers  of 
the  town,  it  is  hard  to  find  any  evidences  of  business  activity. 
There  are  few  or  no  advertisements  of  commission  houses, 
few  advertisements  of  stores.  On  one  or  two  occasions  delib- 
erate attempts  were  made  to  keep  money  at  home  and  to  preach 
abstinence  from  purchasing  goods  made  outside  the  town. 
That  was  hardly  the  policy  which  a  town  aspiring  to  be  the 
commercial  metropolis  of  any  important  district  would  pursue; 
and  the  town  of  Nauvoo  with  a  population  twice  as  numerous 
as  that  of  either  Chicago  or  Alton  had  an  agricultural  hinter- 
land depending  on  it  less  important  than  that  of  either  of  its 
rivals.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  economist  one  wonders 
how  such  a  population  without  extensive  manufacturing  could 
sustain  itself. 

Indications  are  not  lacking  that  the  leaders  of  the  Saints 

18  Smith,  History  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints,  524- 
525;  Nauvoo  Neighbor,  January  10,  1844. 


THE    MORMON   WAR  349 

realized  this  difficulty  and  that  they  made  repeated  efforts  to 
attract  capital  which  might  furnish  employment  to  the  floods 
of  mechanics  who,  bringing  little  more  than  their  strength  and 
their  skill,  flocked  in  as  a  result  of  the  preaching  of  the  faith 
in  the  Old  World  and  in  the  eastern  cities  of  the  United  States. 
Skilled  labor  for  varieties  of  industries  was  ready  at  hand;  and 
Joseph  Smith  and  his  successors  issued  appeal  after  appeal  to 
Latter  Day  Saints  living  elsewhere  who  possessed  a  few  thou- 
sand dollars  to  come  to  Nauvoo  and  invest  it  in  manufacturing 
that  would  supply  an  economic  basis  for  the  vast  political  and 
theocratic  structure  that  Smith  aspired  to  build  up  in  Illinois. 
Repeated  warnings  against  the  immediate  immigration  of  per- 
sons without  capital  had  to  be  issued.  One  or  two  communi- 
cations to  the  Mormon  papers  rebuking  English  immigrants 
for  grumbling  indicated  that  some  of  the  newcomers  did  not 
find  Nauvoo  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey  and  that  they 
were  inclined  to  denounce  as  oppressors  the  little  group  of 
well-to-do  men  in  the  community  whose  capital  was  so  precious 
to  Smith. 

There  was  more  than  one  possible  solution  to  the  problem. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  much  of  the  work  on  the  Temple  and 
the  other  public  structures  was  done  by  men  donating  their 
labor  one  day  in  every  ten,  there  are  indications  that  the  work 
was  used  to  feed  and  clothe  the  men  employed  on  it.  Farmers 
of  the  Mormon  faith  around  Nauvoo  were  urged  in  payment 
of  tithes  to  bring  produce  for  the  support  of  the  men  laboring 
on  the  Temple;  and  the  sisters  were  urged  to  prepare  articles 
of  clothing  for  the  persons  engaged  on  it.  On  several  occa- 
sions payment  of  the  tithes  was  demanded  in  produce,  money, 
or  building  material;  and  guns  and  old  watches  were  pro- 
nounced unacceptable.  Possibly  in  this  way  materials  and  sub- 
sistence for  the  workers  on  the  Temple  were  obtained,  and  a 
certain  amount  of  unemployment  taken  care  of. 

A  precocious  trade  organization  in  the  city  that  grew  up 
may  have  been  one  result  of  this.  The  shoemakers  planned 
at  one  time  to  have  a  common  shop  supplied  by  their  work; 


350  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

associations  of  carriage  builders  announced  themselves  ready 
to  receive  orders;  at  one  time  a  trades  council  was  held  to 
consider  the  building  of  a  factory  on  a  mutual  stock  subscrip- 
tion. But  many  of  the  Mormon  men  who  emigrated  to  the 
city  of  promise  scattered  to  the  nearby  towns  and  to  gentile 
farms  to  find  work,  while  Mormon  girls  proved  a  blessing  to 
overworked  housewives  of  the  Military  Tract  or  in  some 
instances  met  an  evil  fate  in  the  little  river  towns.  To  this 
necessary  scattering  of  their  coreligionists  some  Mormons 
were  inclined  to  lay  the  fact  that  the  church  was  not  strong 
enough  to  withstand  the  assaults  of  its  foes.  Had  certain 
well-to-do  men  in  the  east,  it  was  said,  come  to  Nauvoo  with 
their  money  as  they  had  been  adjured  to  do,  there  would  have 
been  sufficient  numbers  of  the  people  in  the  town  and  the  county 
to  have  defied  all  enemies  and  to  have  controlled  the  state 
politically. 

It  was  not  surprising  that  aside  from  any  partisan  motives 
for  wishing  ill  to  the  Mormons  the  fact  that  this  predominance 
in  the  state  was  the  ideal  of  the  Saints  was  enough  to  stir  up 
against  them  a  local  opposition  that  deepened  and  became  more 
bitter  till  the  final  expulsion  of  the  Mormons.  In  part  this 
antagonism  may  be  ascribed  to  the  jealousy  of  Warsaw  at  the 
development  of  its  rival  up  the  river;  but  the  causes  of  it  were 
more  deep  rooted;  and  by  1843  hostility  to  the  Mormons  in 
the  state  was  open  enough  to  have  become  a  serious  issue.  On 
August  19,  1843,  an  anti-Mormon  meeting  held  at  Carthage 
adopted  resolutions  condemning  in  vigorous  language  the 
regime  at  Nauvoo,  and  denouncing  the  violence,  the  defiance 
of  law,  and  the  thievery  that  flourished  there  and  pledged  the 
convention  to  offer  resistance.  Furthermore,  Missouri  was 
assured  that  if  another  warrant  was  issued  against  Smith  the 
people  of  Carthage  would  do  all  in  their  power  to  see  it 
executed.14 

Events  moved  rapidly.  For  some  reason,  instead  of  throw- 
ing his  support  to  one  presidential  candidate  or  the  other  in 

14  Alton  Telegraph,  September  23,  1843; 


THE    MORMON   WAR  351 

1844,  Smith  decided  to  announce  himself  as  a  candidate.  What 
he  can  possibly  have  hoped  to  gain  from  his  candidacy  is  hard 
to  see,  unless  it  was  to  demonstrate  that  he  held  the  balance 
of  power  in  the  nation  as  he  already  held  it  in  the  state.  At 
all  events  he  began  newspaper  agitation  in  support  of  his  aspi- 
rations and  sent  out  Mormon  emissaries  to  electioneer  for  him. 

Meanwhile  another  secession  from  the  church  was  immi- 
nent. On  June  7,  1844,  there  appeared  at  Nauvoo  the  first 
number  of  the  Expositor,  a  paper  supported  by  a  group  of 
men  of  whom  the  most  prominent  were  William  and  Wilson 
Law,  F.  M.  and  C.  L.  Higbee,  and  Robert  D.  and  Charles 
A.  Foster.  The  Laws  and  Robert  Foster  had  been  cut  off  from 
the  church  in  the  preceding  April.15  The  Nauvoo  Neighbor 
promptly  found  a  string  of  accusations  to  bring  against  the 
various  members  of  the  group;  but  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
Laws  were  well-to-do  members  of  the  community,  the  defec- 
tion was,  to  say  the  least,  a  serious  one.16  The  Expositor  in 
the  single  number  that  was  permitted  to  issue  went  straight  to 
the  mark.  It  accused  the  Smiths  of  embezzling  church  funds, 
of  enticing  immigrants  too  hastily  in  order  to  sell  them  prop- 
erty at  exorbitant  prices  and  of  then  leaving  others  to  provide 
them  with  work  to  support  themselves.  It  denounced  the  activ- 
ity of  the  church  in  politics  and  the  high-handed  procedures  in 
freeing  by  writs  of  habeas  corpus,  issuing  from  the  municipal 
court,  persons  arrested  by  the  United  States  marshal.  More 
damaging  still,  it  again  accused  the  Smiths  of  the  deliberate 
seduction  of  women  and  the  secret  practice  of  plural  marriage. 
The  authorities  at  Nauvoo  to  meet  the  attack  had  no  other 
recourse  than  a  council  order  to  suppress  the  paper  as  a  nui- 
sance, and  accordingly  the  press  was  totally  destroyed. 

The  crisis  was  at  hand.  The  anti-Mormons  gathered  at 
Warsaw  and  passed  resolutions  for  the  extermination  of  the 
Mormon  leaders.  They  resolved  that  if  the  governor  would 
not  order  out  the  militia  to  secure  the  execution  of  a  warrant 

ir>  Times  and  Seasons,  April  15,  1843. 
16  Nauvoo  Neighbor,  June  26,  1844. 


352  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

they  would  rely  on  the  rallying  of  the  posse  comitatus  with 
assistance  from  other  counties  and  from  Missouri  and  Iowa. 
Throughout  the  county  and  in  neighboring  districts  in  Illinois, 
Iowa,  and  Missouri,  men  were  gathering  under  arms.  A  bolder 
man  than  Joseph  Smith  might  have  lost  his  nerve  in  the  emer- 
gency. For  a  time  he  appears  to  have  thought  of  fleeing  to 
the  wilderness.  From  this  resolution  he  was  dissuaded;  and 
with  Hyrum,  he  surrendered  to  arrest  at  Carthage,  June  24, 
on  a  charge  of  rioting.  Next  day  a  warrant  charging  them 
with  treason  was  prepared  and  served.17  Leaving  the  Smiths 
in  the  jail  at  Carthage,  Governor  Ford,  who  had  arrived  on 
the  scene  with  state  troops  and  taken  command  of  the  militia 
that  had  mustered,  disbanded  all  the  forces  brt  three  com- 
panies and,  leaving  two  at  Carthage,  marched  with  the  third 
to  Nauvoo  to  urge  a  surrender  of  the  state  arms  still  there. 
Meanwhile,  on  June  27,  the  Smiths  were  set  upon  and  mur- 
dered in  the  Carthage  jail.18  Ford,  who  returned  from  Nau- 
voo before  the  news  of  the  murder  reached  that  place,  inclined 
to  believe  that  it  was  a  plot  to  procure  his  own  assassination 
there,  as  a  preliminary  to  a  state  war  on  the  Mormons.  Feel- 
ing he  could  trust  neither  Mormon  nor  anti-Mormon,  he 
returned  to  Quincy  to  watch  the  excitement  gradually  quiet 
itself. 

So  perished  Joseph  Smith  and  his  brother,  Hyrum,  at  the 
hands  of  a  mob,  which  was  too  panic-stricken  at  the  Mormons' 
theocratic  schemes  to  show  mercy  or  allow  fair  fight.  By  this 
shedding  of  blood  the  anti-Mormons  probably  believed  the 
freedom  of  Illinois  and  the  dissolution  of  the  dangerous  power 
had  been  purchased.  The  Alton  Telegraph  commenting  two 
years  before  on  a  keen  analysis  of  Mormonism  by  that  insa- 
tiable student  of  ideas,  Jonathan  Baldwin  Turner,  had  pro- 
nounced the  opinion  that  Smith's  empire  would  not  long  survive 
him.  But  from  among  all  the  hands  stretched  out  to  grasp 
at  a  fraction  of  the  sway  enjoyed  by  Smith  one  man  seized 

17  Times  and  Seasons,  August  i,  1845;  Nauvoo  Neighbor,  June  26,  1844. 

18  Times  and  Seasons,  July  i,  1844. 


THE    MORMON   WAR  353 

the  reins  more  firmly  than  Smith  himself  had  ever  held  them, 
proving  that  while  he  lacked  the  qualities  of  imagination  and 
boldness  needed  to  found  a  new  religion,  he  had  the  strength 
of  will  and  ruthlessness  of  purpose  to  dominate  it  for  his  own 
uses. 

At  the  time  of  his  death  Smith  governed  the  church  as  a 
member  of  the  first  presidency,  of  which  Hyrum  and  Sidney 
Rigdon  were  the  other  members.  Rigdon  at  once  hastened 
from  Pittsburg  to  Nauvoo  to  endeavor  to  assert  his  constitu- 
tional right  as  surviving  member  of  the  first  presidency  to  lead 
the  church.  But  he  was  not  the  man  to  obtain  power  that  Brig- 
ham  Young  had  marked  out  for  himself.  Violent  in  speech, 
irresolute  in  action,  continually  grasping  at  an  authority  denied 
him  by  the  stronger  willed  men  who  surrounded  him,  he  stood 
helpless,  while  Young,  controlling  the  people  like  a  second 
Joseph,  carried  through  a  complete  usurpation  in  the  name  of 
another  part  of  the  hierarchy  —  that  of  the  "Twelve." 

Secession  movements  from  all  sides  had  first  to  be  checked. 
James  J.  Strang  professed  to  have  received  from  Smith  a  reve- 
lation June  1 8,  commanding  him  to  establish  a  "stake"  at 
Voree ;  and  he  was  promptly  cut  off  from  the  church,  a  number 
of  followers  going  with  him.  According  to  other  accounts 
William  Law  attempted  to  establish  a  Mormon  settlement  at 
Rock  Island.19  The  return  of  the  "Twelve"  and  the  personal 
influence  of  Young  finally  brought  unity  out  of  confusion. 

On  August  8  a  meeting  of  the  church  was  held.  Young 
put  the  question  to  the  people  whether  they  wished  a  guardian, 
a  prophet,  a  spokesman;  but  no  one  answered.  Young  then 
defined  the  position  of  the  "  Twelve,"  claiming  for  them  the 
power  to  regulate  the  church.  Amasa  Lyman  and  Sidney 
Rigdon,  he  admitted,  had  been  councilors  in  the  first  presidency, 
but  if  either  wished  to  act  as  spokesman  for  Joseph,  he  must 
go  behind  the  veil  where  Joseph  was.  Doubtless  the  double 
entendre  was  not  lost  on  the  men  to  whom  it  was  addressed. 

19  Chicago  Democrat,  September  18,  1844;  Times  and  Seasons,  September 
2,  1844. 


354  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

Rigdon  refused  to  have  his  name  voted  for  as  spokesman  or 
guardian,  and  all  voted  to  sustain  the  "Twelve."  Notice  of 
this  decision  was  duly  published  with  the  remark  that  "  the 
elders  abroad  will  best  exhibit  their  wisdom  to  all  men  by 
remaining  silent  on  those  things  they  are  ignorant  of."  The 
presence  of  a  firm  hand  had  been  apparent  in  the  proclamation 
already  issued  by  Young  to  the  effect  that  the  branches  abroad 
must  be  tithed  as  soon  as  organized.  A  day  of  closer  organ- 
ization of  the  church  was  at  hand.20 

Rigdon  could  not  refrain  from  one  more  snatch  at  the 
power  passing  from  his  grasp.  It  was  said  that  Joseph  Smith 
before  his  death  had  received  a  revelation  designating  Rigdon 
as  a  prophet,  seer,  and  revelator.  On  the  night  of  the  second 
of  September,  according  to  his  enemies,  claiming  to  have  the 
"keys"  above  the  "Twelve,"  he  ordained  certain  men  to  be 
prophets,  priests,  and  kings.  His  enemies  heard  of  his  pro- 
ceeding almost  at  once  and  acted  promptly.  First  they  appar- 
ently bullied  him  into  surrender  with  threats  of  physical  vio- 
lence and  on  September  8  called  a  meeting  to  try  him.  Young 
adjured  those  who  were  for  Joseph  and  Hyrum  Smith,  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  the  Temple,  and  the  "  Twelve "  to  stand 
forth ;  those  who  were  for  Rigdon  or  Lyman  Wight  or  James 
Emmett  might  also  stand  forth,  for  they  were  known.  William 
Marks  bravely  defended  the  right  of  Rigdon  as  a  member  of 
the  first  presidency  to  receive  the  oracles  from  Smith  and  to 
give  them  to  the  church.  Rigdon  was  overwhelmed  by  his 
enemies  with  ridicule  and  invective,  however,  and  he  and  his 
followers  were  cast  out.21 

Further  opposition  had  to  be  met  from  the  Smith  family. 
For  the  time  Young  quieted  Mother  Smith's  insistence  on  the 
rights  of  the  young  son  of  the  prophet  by  promises  that  in  due 
time  his  rights  would  be  recognized,  but  that  for  the  present 
she  must  remember  that  by  pushing  his  claim  she  would  expose 
him  to  danger.  William  Smith,  the  younger  brother  of  the 

20  Times  and  Seasons,  August  15,  September  2,  1844. 

21  Alton  Telegraph,  September  21,  1844.;   Times  and  Seasons,  September  15, 
1844;  Nauvoo  Neighbor,  October  2,  December  15,  1844, 


THE   MORMON   WAR  355 

prophet,  was  persistent  in  his  protest;  and,  after  it  became 
apparent  that  he  could  not  be  kept  quiet,  he  was  ridiculed  in  the 
Mormon  papers  and  finally  bullied  into  keeping  silence  while 
he  was  at  Nauvoo.  In  the  autumn  of  1 845  he  was  cut  off  from 
the  church.22  He  openly  charged  that  the  "Twelve"  were 
leading  the  church  out  into  the  wilderness  to  have  the  absolute 
sway  of  it,  that  they  disregarded  the  claims  of  the  Smiths  and 
of  the  infant  Joseph  and  even  treated  them  with  derision;  he 
laid  the  spiritual  wife  doctrine  to  the  charge  of  Young  and 
the  "Twelve,"  claiming  that  they  had  first  taught  it  at  Boston. 
A  conference  in  Cincinnati  in  January  of  1846  reiterated  Wil- 
liam Smith's  attacks  on  the  "  Twelve,"  and  pronounced  in  favor 
of  the  right  of  little  Joseph.  Thus  the  schism  began  among 
the  Mormons  that  has  continued  to  our  own  day.23 

Meanwhile  the  necessity  of  removal  from  Illinois  was 
doubtless  becoming  increasingly  apparent  to  the  leaders  of  the 
party  at  Nauvoo.  The  legislature  of  1845  had  repealed  their 
charter,  leaving  them  without  any  government  adequate  for  the 
city.  In  these  circumstances  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  stran- 
gers in  order  they  had  to  take  up  certain  uncouth  practices  of 
which  the  mildest  was  "whittling  out  of  town."24 

The  fetish  of  the  "Twelve"  was  the  completion  of  the 
Temple  at  Nauvoo.  Probably  this  policy  was  dictated  partly 
by  the  fact  that  according  to  them,  Sidney  Rigdon  had  tried 
to  draw  the  people  away  to  Pittsburg  and  to  scatter  the  church, 
prophesying  that  the  Temple  would  never  be  completed.  To 
save  their  faces  the  Nauvoo  Mormons  were  compelled  to 
wait  until  the  Temple  was  completed  so  that  the  people  could 
receive  in  it  their  promised  endowments.  On  May  28,  1845, 
the  Nauvoo  Neighbor  announced  that  the  capstone  was  in 
place.  In  April  of  1846  the  Temple  was  dedicated,  admission 
to  the  ceremony  costing  one  dollar. 

22  Times  and  Seasons,  November  i,  1845;  Nauvoo  Neighbor,  June  n,  1845; 
Warsaw  Sianal,  October  29,  1845;    see  also  Lee,  The  Mormon  Menace,  207. 

23  Warsaw   Signal,    October    29,    1845 ;     broadside    in    Chicago    Historical 
Society. 

24  Lee,  The  Mormon  Menace,  213. 


356  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Since  early  in  1845  the  leaders  had  been  considering  the 
idea  of  removal  to  some  more  remote  site  where  the  church 
could  be  governed  without  exciting  the  hostility  of  the  gentiles. 
The  pine  region,  Wisconsin,  Texas,  the  country  west  of  Mis- 
souri, and  Oregon  were  mentioned  as  possible  locations.25  The 
delay  of  departure  caused  in  a  year  and  a  half  two  armed 
conflicts  between  the  Mormons  and  their  opponents  that  have 
gone  down  in  the  history  of  the  state  as  the  "  Mormon  Wars." 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1845  attacks  on  the  Mormons  and 
on  the  dangerous  political  tendency  of  their  settlement  at  Nau- 
voo,  controlled  in  its  voting  strength  by  the  will  of  a  few  men, 
began  to  appear  in  such  papers  as  the  Warsaw  Signal.  The 
anti-Mormons  denied  apparently  with  some  truth  that  their 
propaganda  was  a  whig  device  to  control  the  district  by  driving 
out  the  Mormon  allies  of  the  democrats;  on  the  contrary,  they 
alleged  that  the  movement  comprised  the  old  settlers  in  Han- 
cock of  both  parties.  The  old  charges  against  the  Mormons 
of  harboring  thieves,  of  counterfeiting,  and  of  general  law- 
lessness were  reiterated.26  But  the  Nauvoo  Neighbor  of  Janu- 
ary 22,  1845,  declared  that  the  thievery  was  that  of  a  gang  in 
Iowa,  unconnected  with  the  Mormons,  who  carried  their 
stolen  property  through  Nauvoo. 

In  the  fall  of  1845  tne  anti-Mormons  initiated  a  regular 
campaign  designed  to  drive  the  Mormons  out  of  the  county. 
Early  in  September  a  mob  one  or  two  hundred  strong  began 
burning  the  houses  of  Mormons  in  the  country,  requiring  them 
to  move  their  household  goods  to  Nauvoo.  Jacob  B.  Back- 
enstos,  the  sheriff  of  the  county,  was  a  Mormon  sympathizer, 
or  what  at  the  time  was  called  a  "jack-Mormon,"  a  man  put 
in  office  by  Mormon  votes.  In  the  spring  the  feeling  against 
him  in  the  county  had  run  high  because  of  a  speech  he  was 
alleged  to  have  made  in  the  legislature;  and  the  Carthage 
Grays  had  ordered  him  out  of  the  county,  charging  among 

28  Times  and  Seasons,  September  15,  1844;  Hancock  Eagle,  AprH  24,  1846; 
Nauvoo  Neighbor,  February  15,  26,  1845. 

**  Warsaw  Signal,  January  15,  May  14,  1845;  Alton  Telegraph,  June 
21,  1845. 


THE   MORMON   WAR  357 

other  things  against  him  that  he  had  engineered  the  deal  to 
cast  the  Mormon  vote  for  Hoge  in  the  congressional  election 
of  1843;  indeed,  it  was  said  that  Hoge's  recent  defeat  for  a 
renomination  had  been  due  to  public  dissatisfaction  with  the 
appointment  of  Backenstos,  at  his  instance,  as  superintendent 
of  the  lead  mines.  Whatever  his  political  affiliations  were, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Backenstos  did  his  duty  in  the  riots 
of  the  fall  of  1845,  even  though  the  motive  from  which  he  did 
it  may  not  have  been  disinterested.27 

When  apprised  of  the  activity  of  the  rioters,  Backenstos 
on  September  13  attempted  to  raise  a  posse  at  Warsaw  for 
the  purpose  of  stopping  the  disorder.  Failing  to  get  any  assist- 
ance from  the  old  settlers,  he  ordered  the  Mormons  in  Nauvoo 
to  hold  themselves  in  readiness;  in  a  second  proclamation  of 
September  16  he  stated  that  Colonel  Levi  Williams,  the  leader 
of  the  rioters,  had  called  out  the  militia  of  Hancock,  McDon- 
ough,  and  Schuyler  counties,  and  he  warned  men  against  obey- 
ing the  call.  On  the  same  day  he  called  out  a  force  of  mounted 
men  to  rescue  his  own  family  and  others  from  the  territory 
terrorized  by  the  mob.  Proceeding  against  the  mob,  he  encoun- 
tered them  at  their  work  of  burning  houses  and  put  them  to  rout 
with  the  loss  of  two  of  their  number  killed  and  others  wounded. 
The  Mormons  in  their  turn  fell  to  plundering,  and  a  state  force 
under  Hardin  had  to  be  sent  to  disperse  them.28 

Meanwhile  meetings  held  in  nearby  counties,  notably  at 
Quincy,  at  Mendon,  and  an  important  one  held  on  October 
i  at  Carthage,  at  which  eight  or  nine  counties  were  represented, 
resolved  that  the  only  solution  was  the  breaking  up  of  the  Mor- 
mon settlement  in  Hancock.  The  Nauvoo  common  council 
offered  to  remove  in  the  spring  in  case  the  gentiles  would  assist 
them  in  selling  or  renting  their  property  and  would  refrain 
from  vexatious  lawsuits.  These  terms  were  accepted  by  the 

2T  Illinois  State  Register,  April  24,  1845 !  Sangamo  Journal,  April  i,  17, 
1845;  Nauvoo  Neighbor,  April  23,  September  24,  1845;  Warsaw  Signal,  Sep- 
tember 17,  1845. 

28  Nauvoo  Neighbor,  September  17,  1845;  Warsaw  Signal,  September 
17,  1845. 


358  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

anti-Mormons  on  condition  that  an  armed  force  should  occupy 
Nauvoo  during  the  winter  to  prevent  continuance  of  the  alleged 
depredations  of  the  Mormons  on  the  property  of  the  old  set- 
tlers.29 The  Mormons  at  the  time  were  said  to  be  almost 
in  military  control  of  the  county  and  were  accused  of  driving 
away  the  cattle  and  harvesting  the  crops  of  their  opponents. 
It  was  the  uncompromising  attitude  of  the  people  of  the  neigh- 
boring counties  that  compelled  them  to  give  way.30  The  next 
session  of  the  circuit  court  found  several  true  bills  against 
Mormons,  but  all  except  one  against  Backenstos  for  a  murder 
connected  with  the  reducing  of  the  county  to  order  were  nol- 
prossed.  On  this  remaining  bill  Backenstos  was  acquitted.31 
Meanwhile  attempts  to  serve  warrants  in  Nauvoo  as  late  as 
October  25  had  been  defeated  by  a  show  of  force  on  the  part  of 
the  Mormons.  The  Mormon  county  commissioners,  accord- 
ing to  their  opponents,  attempted  to  have  the  expenses  of  Back- 
enstos' posse  charged  to  the  county  exchequer.32 

The  Mormons  feared  a  renewal  of  disorder  when  the  mili- 
tia guard  under  Major  Warren  stationed  in  Nauvoo  during  the 
winter  was  withdrawn  the  first  of  May.  In  answer  to  protests 
against  its  withdrawal  Ford  answered  that  the  force  was  an 
expense  to  the  state  and  was  not  large  enough  to  prevent  vio- 
lence if  either  side  were  inclined  to  use  it.  The  Mormons, 
whose  progress  in  removing  was  not  so  great  as  it  should  have 
been  at  the  time,  were  warned  that  it  was  out  of  the  power  of 
the  governor  to  protect  them  at  Nauvoo,  since  the  people  of 
the  state  would  not  fight  for  them.  Although  Ford  disclaimed 
any  responsibility  on  the  part  of  himself  or  the  state  for  the 
agreement  made  the  preceding  fall  by  which  the  Mormons  had 
promised  to  emigrate,  he  told  them  plainly  that  there  was  noth- 
ing else  for  them  to  do.  The  Mormons  asserted  that  they 
were  departing  as  fast  as  possible  and  that  the  only  cause  of 

29  Qulncy    Whig,   October    i,    1845;    Sangamo    Journal,    October    2,    1845; 
Nauvoo  Neighbor,  October  29,  1845. 

30  Chicago  Democrat,  October  4,  6,  1845. 

31  Nauvoo   Neighbor,  October  29,    1845;   Illinois  State   Register,   December 
19,  1845. 

32  Warsaw  Signal,  October  29,  1845,  January  8,  1846. 


THE    MORMON   WAR  359 

the  uproar  against  them  was  the  fear  on  the  part  of  the  whigs 
that  they  might  cast  a  few  votes.  They  asserted  that  at  a 
meeting  they  had  declared  their  intention  not  to  vote  again  in 
Illinois.  On  May  15  the  Hancock  Eagle,  ostensibly  a  "new 
citizen"  paper,  though  Mormon  in  sympathy,  declared  that 
about  fourteen  hundred  teams  had  crossed  the  river  and  that 
about  twelve  thousand  souls  had  already  left  the  state.  Major 
Warren,  who  had  received  orders  the  day  after  his  men  dis- 
banded to  muster  them  in  again,  assured  the  anti-Mormons  that 
the  Mormons  were  leaving  as  fast  as  possible  and  that  regula- 
tions were  in  force  sufficient  to  guard  against  any  disorder  on 
their  part.33 

Within  a  few  days,  however,  bands  of  anti-Mormons  were 
again  at  work  driving  isolated  Mormons  in  the  county  off  their 
property.  Early  in  June  the  anti-Mormons,  alleging  that  the 
Mormons  to  the  number  of  several  hundred  were  planning  to 
stay  at  Nauvoo,  using  it  as  a  base  from  which  to  commit  depre- 
dation on  the  old  settlers,  proposed  to  march  a  force  to  Nauvoo 
as  a  demonstration ;  to  this  end  they  applied  for  aid  to  the  coun- 
ties represented  in  the  Carthage  convention.  The  result, 
according  to  the  new  settlers  in  Nauvoo,  was  a  desperate  rush 
on  the  part  of  the  few  remaining  Mormons  to  get  over  the 
river.  The  new  citizens  who  were  already  moving  in  had  held 
a  public  meeting  on  May  29  to  determine  the  question  of 
establishing  a  city  government.  The  anti-Mormons,  however, 
affected  to  believe  that  the  Mormon  leaders  were  still  domi- 
nating the  policy  of  the  town.  They  affirmed  that  the  com- 
mittee of  new  citizens  had  been  put  down  by  Backenstos,  who 
had  raised  a  force  of  five  hundred  men.  On  June  9  the  new 
citizens,  according  to  the  Hancock  Eagle,  passed  conciliatory 
resolutions;  but  the  advance  of  the  hostile  army  next  day  led 
the  opinion  to  be  expressed  that  the  prosperity  of  the  town  was 
what  was  really  aimed  at.  By  June  13  an  anti-Mormon  force 
of  about  four  hundred  was  encamped  before  the  town,  and 

33  Alton  Telegraph,  May  2,  9,  1846;  Hancock  Eagle,  April  10,  17,  May  8, 
15,  1846. 


360  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

about  three  hundred  new  citizens  were  mustered  to  defend  it 
The  anti-Mormons  insisted  that  they  be  admitted  to  the  town  to 
force  the  remaining  Mormons  to  leave,  but  the  new  citizens  re- 
pulsed them,  and  forced  them  to  retreat.  By  the  middle  of  July 
the  Warsaw  Signal  declared  that  an  open  state  of  war  between 
Mormon  and  anti-Mormon  forces  existed  in  the  county.34 

In  the  summer  the  trouble  broke  forth  with  redoubled 
force.  The  anti-Mormons  assembled  in  arms  with  the  inten- 
tion, as  the  Hancock  Eagle  professed  to  believe,  of  plundering 
Nauvoo  and  the  new  citizens  and  of  murdering  those  who  had 
been  forward  in  the  suppression  of  lawlessness.  The  Nauvoo 
party,  whether  directed  by  Mormons  or  new  citizens,  late  in 
August  summoned  a  posse  to  serve  warrants  against  members 
of  the  opposite  party  accused  of  acts  of  violence.  A  few  days 
earlier  a  similar  posse  was  summoned  to  serve  writs  in  Na-uvoo. 
The  anti-Mormons  professed  to  believe  that  the  Mormons 
were  actually  in  control  in  Nauvoo  directing  the  policy  of 
its  newspaper  and  that  with  three  thousand  Mormons  in  town 
and  three  thousand  more  within  easy  reach  in  Iowa  they  con- 
trolled and  terrorized  the  new  citizens,  while  they  sent  out 
parties  to  stir  up  confusion  in  the  county  by  deeds  of  vio- 
lence.35 

The  anti-Mormon  army  once  more  marched  on  Nauvoo 
to  force  the  withdrawal  of  the  Mormons.  They  were  intoler- 
ant in  the  terms  of  departure  that  they  insisted  on ;  they  rejected 
terms  negotiated  by  James  W.  Singleton,  one  of  their  officers, 
who  thereupon  resigned  his  command.  After  several  other 
attempts  at  negotiation,  in  which  the  anti-Mormons  insisted  on 
unconditional  surrender,  they  undertook  to  force  their  way  in. 
A  battle  occurred  which  resolved  itself  into  an  artillery  engage- 
ment without  decisive  result,  from  which  the  anti-Mormons 
withdrew  to  await  an  additional  supply  of  cannon  balls,  with 

34  Hancock  Eagle,  May  25,  June  5,  19,  July  13,  1846;  Warsaw  Signal,  June 
14,  July  16,  extra,  1846;  broadside  of  the  New  Settlers'  committee,  June  15,  1846, 
in  Chicago  Historical  Society. 

38  Belleville  Advocate,  August  27,  1846;  Hancock  Eagle,  extra,  August  21, 
1846;  broadside  of  August  29,  1846*.  io  Chicago  Historical  Society. 


THE    MORMON   WAR  361 

seven  men  wounded  and  their  supply  of  ammunition 
exhausted.36 

Meanwhile  the  two  parties  entered  into  negotiations 
through  the  intervention  of  a  committee  of  citizens  from 
Quincy.  The  anti-Mormons  tried  to  secure  the  surrender  to 
civil  authority  of  all  who  had  resisted  them,  but  finally  were 
content  with  the  withdrawal  of  the  Mormons  from  the  city 
and  their  agreement  to  surrender  their  arms  to  the  Quincy 
committee,  to  be  returned  to  them  after  they  had  crossed  the 
river.  Five  of  the  Mormons  were  to  be  allowed  to  remain  to 
dispose  of  the  church  property.  On  marching  into  Nauvoo  on 
these  terms,  Thomas  S.  Brockman,  the  commander  of  the 
county  forces,  at  once  gave  the  Mormons  five  days  to  leave,  re- 
quiring the  "jack-Mormons,"  such  as  Backenstos  and  William 
Pickett,  to  leave  at  once.  In  addition  Brockman  forced  a  num- 
ber of  the  new  citizens,  estimated  by  the  Warsaw  Signal, 
October  20,  as  not  over  thirty  families,  to  leave  Nauvoo.  Un- 
friendly papers  such  as  the  State  Register  asserted  that  a  reign 
of  terror  marked  by  plunder  and  violence  was  proceeding  in 
Nauvoo.37 

The  opinion  even  of  democrats  in  Illinois  was  turned 
against  the  anti-Mormons  on  account  of  their  high-handed 
proceedings  in  Nauvoo,  whig  papers  like  the  Chicago  Journal 
and  democratic  papers  like  the  State  Register  similarly  con- 
demning them.  Ford  once  more  marched  with  militia  into  the 
county,  only  to  find  that  anti-Mormon  opinion  was  strongly 
against  him.  The  local  papers  treated  with  derision  the  march- 
ing and  counter-marching  of  his  forces;  and  the  anti-Mormon 
women  presented  him  with  a  petticoat,  which  his  loyal  troops 
decreed  should  be  carried  outside  the  camp  and  burned  by 
three  Negroes.38 

36  Quincy  Whig,  September  12,  December  2,  1846;  Warsaw  Signal,  extra, 
September  14,  1846;  circular  to  the  public  by  James  W.  Singleton,  September, 
1846,  in  Chicago  Historical  Society. 

*"*  Warsaw  Signal,  October  27,  1846;  Quincy  Herald,  October  16,  1846; 
Quincy  Whig,  September  23,  1846. 

88  Chicago  Journal,  September  30,  1846;  Quincy  Whig,  November  4,  1846; 
Warsaw  Signal,  November  14,  1846. 


362  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

From  first  to  last  the  party  rivalries  of  whigs  and  democrats 
had  complicated  the  problem  of  the  Mormon  disorders.  Thus 
in  1844  despite  Ford's  denials  the  whigs  insisted  that  his  course 
toward  the  rioters  was  designed  to  curry  favor  with  the  Mor- 
mons and  to  secure  their  votes  for  the  democratic  candidates. 
In  reply  the  democratic  papers  accused  the  whigs  of  trying  to 
stir  up  a  civil  war  in  the  state,  although  themselves  welcoming 
the  Mormon  support.39  In  1845  tne  Sangamo  Journal  affected 
to  believe  that  the  State  Register  was  attempting  to  combine 
the  Mormon  vote  with  that  of  northern  Illinois  to  outbalance 
the  south.40  Even  in  1846  the  democrats  were  charged  with 
encouraging  the  retention  of  enough  Mormon  votes  in  the 
county  to  secure  the  triumph  of  the  democratic  candidates,41 
though  the  democrats  denied  that  the  Mormon  vote  had  been 
necessary  for  the  triumph  of  their  candidate. 

So  after  having  for  six  years  played  a  leading  role  in  the 
life  of  Illinois,  the  Mormons  disappeared  from  its  history 
save  as  the  state  in  future  years  had  to  bear  its  part  in  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  Mormonism  in  Utah.42  After  full 
allowance  is  made  for  the  violence  and  perhaps  the  greed  of 
the  opponents  of  the  Mormons  in  Illinois,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  they  saw  clearly  how  terrible  an  excrescence  on  the  politi- 
cal life  of  the  state  the  Mormon  community  would  be,  once  it 
had  attained  full  growth.  Because  legal  means  would  not 
protect  them  from  the  danger  they  used  violence.  The  ma- 
chinery of  state  government  was  then,  it  must  be  remembered, 
but  a  slight  affair;  and  to  enforce  the  will  of  public  opinion, 
the  resort  to  private  war,  though  to  be  deplored,  was  inevitable. 

39 Sangamo  Journal,  August  22,  1844;  Alton  Telegraph,  August  24,  1844; 
Illinois  State  Register,  October  4,  n,  November  8,  1844;  Chicago  Democrat, 
August  28,  1844. 

40  April  17,  July  24,  1845. 

41  Sangamo  Journal,  January  i,  March  12,  1846. 

42  A  few  members,  many  of  them  relatives  of  Joseph  Smith,  refused  to  follow 
Young  and  remained  in  Illinois  where  their  descendants  are  still  to  be  found  in 
Hancock  county.     Here  they  continue  to  worship  in  the  Reorganized  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints. 


XX.     THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION 

THE  slavery  question  in  Illinois  remained  in  a  state  of 
quiescence  for  at  least  a  decade  after  the  decision  of  the 
convention  struggle.  The  black  laws  remained  and  even  in- 
creased in  severity;  the  shameful  kidnapping  of  free  blacks  out 
of  the  state  went  on  in  defiance  of  legislation,  aided  in  some 
sections  by  a  proslavery  public  opinion  which  was  prone  to 
sooth  itself  with  the  excuse  of  the  kidnappers  that  they  recov- 
ered runaway  slaves  for  their  masters  and  therefore  were 
merely  vindicators  of  a  just  property  right.  On  the  other  hand 
the  underground  railroad  had  its  obscure  beginnings  as  the 
escaping  Negroes  found  sympathy  and  assistance  at  an  increas- 
ing number  of  doors;  there  were  always  communities  in  the 
state  where  the  slave  was  safe  from  his  hunters.  Little  interest 
in  the  antislavery  movement  was  publicly  evidenced.  In  1831 
a  Presbyterian  layman  of  Bond  county — that  source  of  much 
propaganda  in  early  Illinois  —  William  M.  Stewart  by  name, 
put  forth  a  vigorous  protest  against  the  toleration  of  slavery 
by  the  churches.  On  January  9,  1831,  an  antislavery  meeting 
at  Shoal  Creek,  Bond  county,  made  a  vigorous  protest  against 
buying,  selling,  or  holding  slaves,  declaring  that  the  participa- 
tion of  its  members  in  these  things  was  a  disgrace  to  the  Presby- 
terian church.  Along  with  the  protest  came  the  establishment 
of  a  local  colonization  society.1 

During  the  next  year  or  two  the  colonization  movement 
attracted  more  notice,  especially  as  it  came  to  be  contrasted 
favorably  with  abolition.  The  increased  activity  of  the  abo- 
litionists and  the  gag  rules  began  to  bring  the  subject  of  sla- 
very under  wider  discussion.  The  Sangamo  Journal,  Alton 
Spectator,  and  Chicago  American  were  all  strongly  anti-aboli- 

1  Illinois  Intelligencer,  February  19,  March  12,  19,  May  7,  1831. 

363 


364  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

tion  in  their  utterances.  The  Alton  Telegraph,  on  the  other 
hand,  denounced  the  gag  and  interference  with  the  right  of 
petition  in  round  terms.2  It  is  rather  hard  to  define  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Illinois  representatives  in  the  national  house  of 
representatives  on  the  subject.  They  voted  for  the  gag  resolu- 
tion designed  to  cut  off  abolition  petitions  in  1836;  but  on 
motions  and  petitions  involved  in  Adams'  diplomatic  fencing 
with  his  adversaries,  the  delegation,  Zadoc  Casey  particularly, 
occasionally  voted  with  him.  In  Illinois  the  general  assembly 
in  the  session  of  1837  passed  some  violent  anti-abolition  resolu- 
tions. These  passed  the  senate  unanimously;  but  in  the  house, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  Andrew  McCormick,  Gideon  Minor,  John 
H.  Murphy,  Parven  Paullin,  and  Dan  Stone  cast  their  votes  in 
the  negative.  Before  the  end  of  the  session,  Abraham  Lincoln 
and  Dan  Stone  recorded  on  the  Journals  of  the  house  their 
formal  protest  against  the  resolutions.  Declaring  their  belief 
that  abolition  agitation  tended  to  increase  rather  than  diminish 
the  evils  of  slavery,  they  pronounced  the  peculiar  institution 
founded  on  injustice  and  bad  policy;  and  they  based  their  dis- 
sent to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  not 
on  the  lack  of  power  on  the  part  of  congress  to  do  away  with 
slavery  there,  but  on  the  fact  that  congress  should  act  only  on 
the  petition  of  the  people  of  the  district.  In  view  of  the  in- 
creasing rage  against  abolitionism  rising  in  the  state  and  even 
more  in  the  country  at  large,  the  men  who  signed  this  document 
took  their  political  futures  in  their  hands.3 

In  originating  abolition  propaganda  in  Illinois  even  the 
bold  act  of  the  man  destined  to  be  the  freer  of  the  slaves  takes 
for  the  time  second  place  to  that  of  the  martyr  of  abolitionism, 
Elijah  Parish  Lovejoy.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  Lovejoy  had 
just  attained  the  age  of  thirty-five. years.  He  was  born  in 

2  Sangamo  Journal,  November  3,  1832,  May  n,  September  21,  1833,  August 
6,  1836;  Illinois  Advocate,  January  19,  1833;  Alton  Spectator,  November  19, 
1835,  February  19,  1836;  Alton  Telegraph,  February  17,  1836;  Chicago  American, 
September  5,  1835. 

8  Congressional  Debates,  1834-1835,  p.  1141;  1835-1836,  p.  2535,  2608, 
2660,  2662,  2779,  4051;  House  Journal,  1837,  i  session,  311;  Senate  Journal, 
1837,  i  session,  297. 


THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION  365 

Maine,  the  son  of  a  Presbyterian  clergyman.  He  had  gradu- 
ated from  Waterville  College  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  set 
out  to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  west,  becoming  first  school  teacher 
and  then  newspaper  editor  in  St.  Louis.  In  1832  he  entered  the 
ministry  and  in  1833  graduated  from  Princeton  Theological 
Seminary  and  returned  to  St.  Louis  to  edit  a  religious  paper, 
the  St.  Louis  Observer.  Lovejoy's  fearlessness  of  speech  in 
an  intolerant  community  soon  led  him  into  a  series  of  difficul- 
ties. His  paper  manfully  denounced  the  mob  rule  and  disorder 
that  arose  in  St.  Louis.  When  it  struck  straight  from  the 
shoulder  in  denouncing  the  burning  of  a  Negro  by  a  St.  Louis 
mob  in  April,  1836,  and  expressed  its  indignation  at  the  opin- 
ion of  a  judge,  appropriately  named  Lawless,  to  the  effect  that 
what  was  a  crime  when  committed  by  one  person  was  not  such 
when  committed  by  a  mob,  the  printing  office  was  repeatedly 
attacked  and  damaged.  Lovejoy  then  moved  his  press  to 
Alton  where  the  presence  of  a  group  of  New  England  business 
men,  favorably  known  for  piety  and  charity,  seemed  to  offer  it 
a  better  field.  It  was  destroyed  presumably  by  a  St.  Louis  mob 
immediately  after  it  was  landed,  but  indignation  in  Alton  found 
expression  in  a  public  meeting  which  promised  funds  for  a  new 
press.  The  meeting  denounced  abolition  in  vigorous  terms; 
and  Lovejoy,  while  declaring  his  antislavery  principles  and  his 
determination  to  publish  what  he  pleased  in  his  paper,  declared 
he  was  not  an  abolitionist. 

It  is  doubtful  if  Henrik  Ibsen  ever  saw  the  newspaper 
materials  in  which  lie  hidden  the  outlines  of  the  story  of  the 
tragedy  staged  at  Alton,  but  the  tragedy  of  Lovejoy  is  the 
tragedy  of  Brand  in  real  life  almost  to  the  letter.  Lovejoy 
mentally  and  spiritually  was  a  Puritan  of  the  Puritans.  His 
paper  in  every  issue  reveals  the  sharp,  unflinching  New  Eng- 
land view  of  life.  There  are  no  sentimental  and  emotional 
tales  or  religious  appeals;  Lovejoy  was  content  with  preaching 
obedience  to  the  law  of  God  rather  than  ravishing  his  hearers 
with  the  divine  love.  His  temperance  preaching  was  not  the 
usual  sentimental  appeal  for  the  drunkard's  wife  and  children 


366  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

but  hard  common  sense  or  biting  contempt.  There  was  much 
politics,  much  practical  agriculture,  clipped  into  the  paper.  In 
fact  it  might  have  been  framed  for  entrance  to  a  balanced, 
regulated,  disciplined  New  England  home. 

Lovejoy's  denunciations  of  vice  were  sharp  and  hard. 
He  referred  to  a  French  dancer,  then  the  rage  in  New  York, 
as  "  Celeste,  the  obscene  and  lascivious  danceress  (danseuse  she 
calls  herself)."  "This,"  he  continued,  "is  no  longer  the 
country  of  the  Pilgrims.  Parisian  courtesans  are  paid  $26,000 
per  quarter  for  the  indecent  exposure  of  their  persons  in  pub- 
lic." 4  The  popularity  of  the  dancer  he  believed  but  one  more 
instance  of  the  luxury  and  licentiousness,  the  apologizing  for 
slavery,  the  sabbath  breaking  that  had  accompanied  the  specu- 
lative rage  and  money  madness  of  the  last  few  years.  This 
attitude  inevitably  irritated  the  free  and  easy  westerner,  and  to 
this  irritation  the  character  of  the  well-to-do  New  England 
merchants  prominent  among  Lovejoy's  supporters  must  have 
added.  "Although,"  said  the  proceedings  of  an  anti-abolition 
meeting  of  July,  "the  combination  of  wealth,  interest,  and 
moral  power  were  assiduously  brought  to  bear  upon  the  com- 
munity in  order  to  deter  them  from  such  a  course  —  yet  like 
men  born  to  live  and  die  untrammeled  by  party, — by  mercenary 
motives,  they  met  as  freemen."5  Further,  John  Mason  Peck, 
who  was  already  editing  the  Western  Pioneer  at  Alton,  had  for 
some  time  looked  on  Lovejoy  and  his  methods  with  ill-con- 
cealed dislike.6  Peck  could  not  indorse  Lovejoy's  statement 
that  the  way  to  stop  mobs  was  to  hang  a  few  mobbers;  Peck, 
while  a  New  Englander,  was  not  a  Puritan. 

In  this  situation  events  were  drawing  Lovejoy's  attention 
irresistibly  to  the  subject  of  slavery.  He  believed  that  the  old 
and  new  school  split  in  the  Presbyterian  church  was  caused  by 
slavery,  and  during  the  first  half  of  the  year  1 837  he  was  draw- 
ing nearer  and  nearer  to  abolition.  On  June  8,  he  urged  the 

*  Alton  Observer,  May  25,  1837. 

5  Alton  Telegraph,  July  19,  1837. 

6  Western  Pioneer,  July  29,  1836,  March  29,  October  27,  1837. 


THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION  367 

formation  of  an  antislavery  church  in  St.  Louis;  and,  on  July 
6,  he  called  for  the  organization  of  a  state  antislavery  society. 
The  charge  began  to  spread  that  Lovejoy  had  violated  a  sup- 
posed pledge  not  to  publish  an  antislavery  newspaper.  He  was 
threatened  with  violence,  and  on  the  night  of  August  21  his 
press  was  destroyed.  The  Telegraph  (August  23)  termed  the 
act  an  outrage.  A  second  press  was  obtained  and  destroyed 
on  September  21.  Still  a  third  press  was  ordered,  and  mean- 
while Lovejoy  was  subjected  to  continual  threat  of  mob  vio- 
lence. At  St.  Charles,  Missouri,  only  the  bravery  of  his  wife 
saved  him  from  a  mob.7 

In  the  hope  of  finding  some  way  to  restore  order  and  peace 
at  Alton  public  meetings  were  held  in  the  first  days  of  Novem- 
ber. Lovejoy  stood  out  for  his  right  to  be  heard.  He  deliv- 
ered an  eloquent  and  impressive  but  uncompromising  defense 
of  his  course.  It  might  have  had  its  effect  had  not  Usher  F. 
Linder's  insane  desire  to  exhibit  oratory  of  a  type  more  pleas- 
ing to  western  audiences  caused  him  to  take  the  floor  after 
Lovejoy  and  destroy  the  effect  of  the  latter's  words.  The  Pio- 
neer hoped  that  the  meeting  of  the  colonization  society,  the 
invariable  counter-irritant  to  abolition,  might  set  things  on  the 
right  path  even  though  "  a  very  few  restless  spirits  will  be  disap- 
pointed, vexed,  mortified,  and  may  struggle  for  a  little  time  to 
enjoy  notoriety"  only  to  find  that  "the  benevolent  and  real 
friends  to  humanity  will  co-operate  to  benefit  the  oppressed  in 
a  way  consistent  with  the  peace  of  our  Union  and  the  happiness 
and  rights  of  all  concerned."  8 

For  a  time  Lovejoy  may  have  hesitated.  The  story  is  well 
authenticated  that  he  handed  to  the  Telegraph  editor  a  note 
resigning  as  editor  of  the  Observer.  A  friend  of  Lovejoy's 
asked  to  borrow  it,  and  it  was  never  returned.  Lovejoy  had 
finally  resolved,  if  indeed  he  had  ever  faltered,  to  force  the 
issue  then  and  there.  A  third  press  was  landed  at  Alton  and 

''Alton  Observer,  June  and  July,  December  28,  1837;  Western  Pioneer, 
July  29,  1836;  Alton  Telegraph,  September  27,  October  4,  1837;  Harris,  History 
of  Negro  Slavery  in  Illinois,  80  ff . ;  Illinois  State  Register,  October  6,  1837. 

8  Western  Pioneer,  October  27,  1837. 


368  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

stored  in  the  warehouse  of  Godfrey,  Oilman,  and  Company. 
A  few  men  under  the  command  of  Enoch  Long  undertook  to 
guard  it  there.  On  the  night  of  November  7  a  mob  attacked 
the  warehouse.  In  the  first  assault  one  of  the  attackers  was 
mortally  wounded.  In  a  second,  they  attempted  to  fire  the 
wooden  roof  of  the  warehouse.  Lovejoy  and  a  few  more 
sallied  out  to  prevent  it.  A  first  volley  drove  the  attackers 
away  from  their  ladder.  A  second  sortie  was  made  for  the 
same  purpose,  and  Lovejoy  fell  mortally  wounded.  The  be- 
sieged gave  up  the  fight  and  fled;  the  mob  broke  into  the  ware- 
house and  threw  the  press  into  the  river. 

The  murder  of  Lovejoy  was  a  thing  not  done  in  a  corner; 
it  trumpeted  the  ill-fame  of  Alton  to  the  ends  of  the  United 
States  and  placed  on  the  name  of  the  city  that  aspired  for  com- 
mercial prominence  a  brand  that  has  scarcely  been  removed 
even  up  to  the  present  time.  Probably  to  most  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  the  word  which  associates  itself  intuitively 
with  the  name  of  Alton  is  Lovejoy.  The  papers  of  the  north, 
and  many  in  the  south,  some  nearby  like  the  Peoria  Register 
spoke  out  manfully  in  condemnation  of  this  assault  on  the  free- 
dom of  the  press  and  of  speech  even  while  they  condemned 
abolition.  In  later  days  the  abolitionists  took  pleasure  in  be- 
lieving that  the  curse  of  God  had  fallen  upon  the  city.9 

Alton  was  not  convinced.  The  defenders  of  the  warehouse 
were  indicted  for  "resisting  an  attack  made  by  certain  persons 
unknown  to  destroy  a  printing  press"  and  "unlawfully  defend- 
ing a  certain  ware-house."  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Linder 
prosecuted,  the  defenders  were  acquitted,  as  were  the  assail- 
ants. The  Telegraph  was  thoroughly  cowed  and  protested  it 
was  best  to  say  nothing  which  would  stir  up  further  ill-feeling. 
Peck's  Pioneer  at  the  time  expressed  its  opinion  that  denuncia- 
tion would  do  no  good.10  Six  months  after  the  Lovejoy  affair 

9  Peoria  Register,  November    18,   1837;   Illinois  State  Register,  November 
24,  1837;  Western  Citizen,  May  18,  1843,  April  20,  1847;  Alton  Telegraph,  June 
28,  1845. 

10  Western  Pioneer,  May  n,  1838;  Alton  Telegraph,  November  15,  29,  1837, 
June  24,  1838. 


THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION  369 

was  over,  it  undertook  to  justify  its  course  in  allaying  excite- 
ment among  an  exasperated  people.  "But  they  (the  editors 
of  the  Pioneer)  believed  in  gospel  expediency.  They  had  not 
discarded  the  old  fashioned  virtue  of  prudence,  and  a  due 
regard  to  consequences.  And  they  have  not  the  least  occa- 
sion to  regret  their  course.  .  .  .  An  entire  revolution  has 
been  produced.  Moral  influence,  religion,  temperance, 
order,  respect  for  law,  a  better  understanding  of  each  other's 
rights,  have  all  been  gainers.  A  revival  of  religion  in  most 
of  the  congregations  in  that  city,  and  the  conversion  of  more 
than  one  hundred  souls  —  the  progress  of  the  temperance 
cause, —  of  sound  morality  —  of  quiet  and  good  order, 
of  a  spirit  of  kind  feeling  amongst  all  parties  are  the 
proofs."11 

Doubtless  long  and  tedious  wars  with  "  two  seed  Baptists  " 
and  similar  opponents  had  blunted  the  edge  of  Peck's  New 
England  conscience  to  accord  with  the  dictates  of  expediency 
and  prudence  that  he  so  blandly  preached  over  the  corpse  of  the 
man  he  had  disliked  in  life.  Because  Peck  had  learned  the 
lesson  of  prudence  he  had  twenty  years  more  of  a  peaceful  and 
useful  career  to  round  out.  Because  the  high  temper  of  Love- 
joy's  Puritanism  would  not  let  him  repress  an  iota  of  what 
he  conceived  it  his  duty  to  say,  because  he  would  not  spare  a 
word  or  swerve  an  inch  from  his  path,  he  died  at  thirty-five 
leaving  a  nerve-wrecked  and  destitute  wife.  Yet  his  career 
and  death  had  not,  as  Peck  easily  supposed,  merely  caused 
an  awakened  revival  of  formal  religion.  The  shadow  of 
the  Puritan  had  fallen  across  the  page  of  Illinois  history,  not 
to  recede. 

For  Illinois  Lovejoy  was  the  protomartyr  of  a  movement 
already  under  way  —  the  organization  of  the  antislavery  forces 
in  Illinois.  On  July  4,  1836,  an  antislavery  society  in  Putnam 
county  held  its  second  semiannual  meeting.  Early  in  1837  an 
antislavery  society  was  organized  in  Will  county,  and  one  was 
meeting  in  Bureau  county,  one  in  Jersey  and  one  in  Adams 

11  Western  Pioneer,  June  i,  1838. 


370  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

(formed  in  1836) ,  and  one  in  Macoupin.  On  July  6,  Lovejoy 
had  issued  a  call  for  the  formation  of  a  state  antislavery 
society.  Delegates  met  at  Alton,  October  27,  but  Linder  with 
others  got  possession  of  the  meeting  and  passed  anti-abolition 
resolutions.  Next  evening,  however,  the  antislavery  men  or- 
ganized by  themselves.12  There  was  the  usual  attempt  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  state  to  apply  the  counter-irritant  of  coloniza- 
tion to  these  ebullitions  of  abolitionism. 

Though  Lovejoy  was  gone  there  were  men  left  to  take  up 
his  work.  On  April  2,  1838,  a  meeting  at  Princeton  resolved 
that  an  antislavery  newspaper  should  again  be  established  at 
Alton,  but  in  September  a  meeting  at  Hennepin  resolved  to 
support  Benjamin  Lundy,  who  had  grown  old  in  the  editing  of 
abolition  papers,  with  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation 
at  Hennepin,  Illinois.  The  paper  first  appeared  late  in  1838, 
being  actually  printed  at  Lowell  nearby,  though  dated  at  Hen- 
nepin. The  issue  of  February  26  recorded  the  meeting  of  the 
Illinois  antislavery  society,  and  through  its  columns  there  be- 
gan to  pass  the  resolutions  of  the  county  societies  denouncing 
slavery  as  contrary  to  the  law  of  God  and  to  natural  right. 
Lundy  showed  a  fine  reasonableness,  as  for  instance  when  he 
refused  to  attack  an  old  antislavery  warrior  like  John  Quincy 
Adams  because  he  was  not  an  abolitionist.  He  was  inclined  to 
disapprove  the  uncompromising  attitude  of  Garrison  as  tend- 
ing to  divide  supporters  of  the  cause  by  his  vagaries.  But 
Lundy's  long  warfare  was  at  an  end.  On  July  19,  1839,  he 
apologized  for  missing  a  week's  issue;  a  small  wheat  harvest 
had  required  the  editor's  care.  If,  he  wrote  gallantly,  some 
country  editors  would  farm  a  little  they  might  write  more  inde- 
pendently. Next  week  he  had  to  apologize  for  a  lack  of  edi- 
torial matter  because  of  a  light  fever  which  had  yielded  to  treat- 
ment. On  August  23,  a  paper  with  head  line  dated  the  six- 
teenth announced  that  he  had  died  of  a  bilious  fever  on  Au- 

12  Chicago  American,  August  6,  1836,  April  i,  1837;  Harris,  History  of 
Negro  Slavery  in  Illinois,  82,  87,  125;  Alton  Observer,  June  15,  July  13,  August 
3,  17,  1837;  Alton  Telegraph,  November  i,  1837;  Illinois  State  Register,  Sep- 
tember 15,  October  13,  1837. 


THE    SLAVERY   QUESTION  371 

gust  22. 13    The  last  number  of  the  paper  appeared  on  Septem- 
ber 13,  1839. 

A  new  paper,  the  Lowell  Genius  of  Liberty,  was  begun 
December  19,  1840,  by  Zebina  Eastman,  a  former  associate  of 
Lundy,  and  by  Hooper  Warren.  Warren  edited  it  with  acid 
reminiscences  of  the  old  struggle  of  1 822-1 824  in  which  he  had 
participated.  In  1842  the  paper,  transferred  to  Chicago  under 
Eastman's  editorship,  became  the  Western  Citizen.  Its  circu- 
lation, which  soon  entitled  it  to  claim  patronage  as  an  advertis- 
ing medium,  was  an  indication  that  the  movement  was  gaining 
fast.14 

Meanwhile  the  work  of  agitation  and  organization  in  the 
state  had  advanced.  In  1838,  Reverend  Chauncey  Cook  was 
chosen  traveling  agent  of  the  state  society,  and  he  also  labored 
with  effect  in  enrolling  members  and  forming  new  societies. 
For  a  time  Cook  and  Reverend  W.  T.  Allen,  the  traveling 
agents,  had  to  support  themselves  by  collections.  In  southern 
Illinois  they  encountered  mobs  and  refusals  of  churches  in 
which  to  hold  meetings.  In  1843-1844  they  again  invaded  the 
south,  but  with  not  dissimilar  results.15 

The  antislavery  men  in  Illinois  had  launched  their  cause 
in  politics;  in  1840  they  cast  one  hundred  votes  for  James  G. 
Birney  for  president.  Next  year  at  a  state  society  meeting,  de- 
spite opposition  from  many  who  opposed  political  action  of 
any  sort,  partly  on  the  ground  of  the  iniquity  of  acting  under 
a  United  States  constitution  which  supported  slavery,  it  was 
resolved  that  no  antislavery  man  should  vote  for  any  pro- 
slavery  candidates.  A  convention  in  the  third  district  nomi- 
nated Frederick  Collins  for  congress,  and  he  obtained  527 
votes.  In  1842,  at  the  call  of  a  state  correspondence  commit- 

13  Peoria  Register,  April   14,   October   6,    1838;    Harris,   History   of  Negro 
Slavery  in  Illinois,  126 ;  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  March  8,  29,  June 
28,  July  26, August  25,  1839. 

14  Harris,  History  of  Negro  Slavery  in  Illinois,  135;  Western  Citizen,  Sep- 
tember 7,  14,  1843,  March  21,  1844,  August  28,  1845,  June  3,  1846. 

15  Harris,  History  of  Negro  Slavery  in  Illinois,  129,  131;   Genius  of  Uni- 
versal Emancipation,  July  5,  1834,  January  30,  April  24,  June  5,  1841 ;  Western 
Citizen,  August  3,  November  9,  1843,  April  5,  June  20,  July  23,  1844. 


372  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

tee,  a  liberty  convention  was  held  at  Chicago  which  nominated 
a  candidate  for  governor  and  urged  in  its  resolutions  nomina- 
tions for  all  local  offices.  It  defined  its  position  as  resistance 
to  the  advance  of  the  slave  power  rather  than  unconstitutional 
opposition  to  it.  It  savagely  arraigned  the  national  losses  and 
misfortunes  of  the  last  few  years  as  the  work  of  the  southern 
slavocracy,  and  for  the  state  it  demanded  the  repeal  of  the 
black  laws.  In  1844,  the  party  put  a  presidential  electoral 
ticket  in  the  field  which  received  3,469  votes.  In  1846  it 
adopted  an  elaborate  plan  of  organization,  reaching  down  even 
to  the  school  districts  for  the  gubernatorial  campaign.16  It 
declared  alike  against  the  annexation  of  Texas,  the  black  laws, 
and  Garrisonism.  Its  vote  for  governor  ran  up  to  5,147,  and 
in  the  fourth  district  Owen  Lovejoy  received  3,531  votes  for 
congress. 

Antislavery  in  Illinois  in  the  forties  was  the  center  of  a 
whirlpool  of  new  ideas  in  politics  and  in  life  that  is  the  delight 
of  the  student  of  human  belief.  When  men  are  thinking  in- 
tensely on  one  ideal,  others  group  around  it.  Thus  in  1839  a 
peace  society  at  Mission  Institute  near  Quincy  adopted  resolu- 
tions declaring  that  wars  promoted  for  the  glory  of  rulers  were 
paid  for  by  their  subjects.  Women  participated  on  an  equality 
with  men  in  antislavery  societies,  despite  the  sneers  of  whig 
editors;  and  this  participation  led  to  discussion  of  woman's 
rights.  The  new  wine  of  Garrisonian  abolition,  however,  was 
a  little  too  strong  to  be  safely  introduced  into  the  bottles  of 
Illinois  antislavery  effort;  a  nonresistance  and  the  alleged  in- 
fidelity of  Garrison  were  usually  eschewed  as  stumblingblocks 
to  antislavery  men  in  southern  Illinois.17  There  were,  how- 
ever, denunciations  of  holding  communion  with  churches  or 
mission  boards  that  tolerated  slavery  and  declarations  that 

16  Harris,  History   of  Negro   Slavery   in   Illinois,   146,    147,    155;    Western 
Citizen,  July  26,   1842,  April  6,   1843,  June   3,   10,   1846;    Genius   of   Universal 
Emancipation,  February  6,  27,  May  29,  June  19,  1841;  Genius  of  Liberty,  Jan- 
uary i,  1842. 

17  Genius   of  Universal  Emancipation,  August   30,    1839;    Western   Citizen, 
November  2,  1843,  May  2,  June  20,  September  7,  1844,  September  22,  October 
13,  1846,  February  23,  1847. 


THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION  373 

agnostics  who  were  liberty  men  were  better  than  christians 
who  were  not. 

The  theoretical  antislavery  argument  is  a  magnificent  thing 
to  the  student  of  ideas.  On  the  one  hand  it  begins  with  the 
statement  that  to  justify  slavery  it  is  necessary  to  twist  and 
alter  the  principles  of  the  American  Revolution  and  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence.  On  the  other  it  built  its  foundation 
on  the  old  Puritan  concept,  in  which  seventeenth  century  Eng- 
lishmen had  sought  their  guidance,  of  the  law  of  God.  The 
Puritan  in  Illinois  in  1840  walked  as  genuinely  as  his  English 
predecessor  had  done  two  centuries  before  in  the  faith  that  the 
law  of  God  remained  binding  upon  rulers  and  people  and  that 
any  enactment  or  practice  contrary  to  it  was  null  and  void. 
This  to  them  was  not  an  abrogation  of  human  law  but  rather 
its  fulfillment,  for  only  where  the  divine  law  ruled  could  there 
be  perfect  liberty.  To  the  antislavery  men  the  law  of  nature 
and  the  common  law  of  the  land  were  alike  in  accord  with 
the  law  of  God  in  opposition  to  slavery.  How  could  a  slave 
father  train  up  his  child  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord  as  the  divine  law  bade  him  ?  Owen  Lovejoy  went  back  to 
Coke  to  find  the  law  of  nature  in  opposition  to  slavery.18  And 
when  James  Wallace  of  Hill  Prairie,  Randolph  county,  sat 
down  to  write  against  slavery  under  the  haughty  caption  of  the 
old  Puritan  challenge:  "The  supremacy  of  God  and  the 
equality  of  man,"  Puritans  reached  over  two  centuries  to  guide 
his  pen,  so  that  one  might  almost  swear  his  discourses  were 
plagiarized  from  forgotten  pamphlets  written  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  by  such  champions  of  freedom  as  Lilburne  and 
Overton.  The  leaven  of  Puritanism  remained  unchanged. 

On  the  political  side,  it  was  inevitable  that  antislavery 
propaganda  should  deal  with  economic  conditions.  The  temp- 
tation to  blame  slavery  for  hard  times  was  too  great.  Thus  in 
1 843  Alvan  Stewart  attributed  hard  times  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
south  but  one  person  in  five  was  a  laborer,  that  therefore  for 

18  Western  Citizen,  November  20,  1842,  March  30,  April  20,  July  27,  Sep- 
tember 14,  1843,  March  28,  1844,  November  3,  1846,  February  9,  23,  June 
22,  1847. 


374  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

sustenance  the  south  had  borrowed  three  hundred  millions  of 
northern  labor  and  then  had  failed.  More  significant  by  far 
was  the  idea  advocated  by  William  Goodell,  which  spread  as 
far  as  Illinois,  that  the  true  course  of  the  party  was  to  stand  for 
the  right  of  the  white  as  well  as  for  the  colored  laborer  and  to 
advocate  free  trade  and  direct  taxation.  The  repeal  of  the 
English  corn  laws  seemed  destined  to  let  the  product  of  the 
free  laborer  of  the  north  into  England  as  well  as  that  of  the 
slave  laborers  of  the  south.  In  1847  Goodell,  issuing  a  call  for 
a  national  convention  of  the  free-trade  wing  of  the  liberty 
party,  based  it  on  the  highest  and  best  ideals  of  democracy  — 
the  inalienable  rights  of  men  to  trade  freely  and  to  use  the  earth 
freely  —  therefore,  no  tariffs,  no  laws  permitting  land  monop- 
oly, and  no  laws  permitting  slavery.  An  Illinois  man,  G.  T. 
Gaston,  wrote  to  the  Western  Citizen  urging  similar  doctrine, 
on  the  ground  that  if  the  liberty  party  were  to  be  a  well-rounded 
party,  it  must  have  a  complete  policy.19 

One  wonders  what  might  have  chanced,  had  the  liberty  men 
in  1847,  perhaps  on  a  less  radical  platform,  been  able  to  unite 
with  what  was  best  in  the  democratic  party  and  set  forth  on  a 
crusade  for  the  liberty  of  labor  of  whatever  color  the  laborer 
might  be.  Wentworth  for  years  had  preached  genuine  democ- 
racy to  the  people  of  northern  Illinois,  except  for  the  inevitable 
concession  to  the  south  in  the  matter  of  slavery.  In  1847  tne 
rejection  of  river  and  harbor  improvement  by  southern  votes 
had  driven  him  and  many  another  northern  democratic  poli- 
tician to  the  point  of  revolt  against  slavery.  It  was  one  of  these 
rare  moments  when  the  faces  of  men  seemed  turned  directly 
toward  the  millennium. 

It  was  not  to  be.  The  sins  of  the  southern  aristocracy 
were  not  yet  full.  The  policy  of  "one-idealism" — of  confin- 
ing the  party  to  the  antislavery  issue  —  triumphed  in  the  liberty 
party.  The  Western  Citizen  preached  it  assiduously,  perhaps 
from  dread  of  Wentworth's  skill  in  pilfering  votes  from  abo- 

19  Western  Citizen,  April  27,  1843,  July  7,  September  i,  1846,  January  19, 
May  25,  October  12,  1847. 


THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION  375 

litionists.20  Wentworth  professed  himself  satisfied  with  the 
nomination  of  Cass  and  fell  back  into  his  party,  though  always 
a  disturbing  element  in  it  because  of  his  championship  of  justice 
and  common  sense.  When  a  great  antislavery  party  arose,  it 
was  to  draw  its  principles  except  on  slavery  from  the  whigs 
rather  than  from  the  democrats ;  and  fifty  years  of  wandering  in 
the  wilderness  have  been  necessary  to  make  the  American  peo- 
ple realize  as  a  nation  that  while  rejecting  slavery,  they  ac- 
cepted the  principles  that  their  forefathers  rejected  when 
offered  to  them  by  Clay  and  Webster. 

In  the  attitude  of  the  Illinois  churches  on  slavery  one  has  a 
study  of  interest,  fascinating  because  of  its  vagaries  and  incon- 
sistencies. There  was  for  instance  the  little  Reformed  Presby- 
terian group  at  Sparta  and  Eden  who  on  occasion  went  so  far 
as  to  pronounce  the  dissolution  of  a  union  tainted  with  slavery 
as  not  the  worst  misfortune  that  might  befall.  The  church  at 
Hill  Prairie  in  1843  sent  to  congress  a  strenuous  antislavery 
petition.  In  northern  Illinois  the  Presbyterian  churches  and 
synods  gave  repeated  testimony  against  the  sin  of  slaveholding 
and  repeated  declarations  that  they  would  have  no  fellowship 
with  slaveholders.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Alton  Presbytery 
discreetly  smothered  such  a  resolution  in  1844.  A  northern 
Congregational  church  occasionally  hedged  on  similar  tests,  but 
generally  the  churches  of  this  communion  were  outspoken  in 
favor  of  antislavery.21 

Methodism  hardly  gave  so  many  evidences  of  protest 
against  the  general  proslavery  attitude  of  the  order  as  did 
Presbyterianism.  The  antislavery  leaders  came  to  expect  op- 
position from  the  Methodists.  One  finds  appeals  to  the  Illi- 
nois conferences  to  take  a  decisive  stand  against  the  institution. 
In  1844  a  "  Wesleyan  "  circuit  was  formed  on  Fox  river  on  the 
principle  of  "  no  fellowship  with  slavery."  There  were  about 

20  July  7,  September  8,  15,  1846,  January  5,  May  18,  July  27,  1847. 

21  Western   Citizen,  July  26,   1842,   January  25,   May  2,  July  4,  25,    1844; 
Belleville  Advocate,  October  25,  November  i,  1845;    Presbytery  of  Ottawa,  Min- 
utes, May  25,  1843;    Synod  of  Peoria,  Minutes,  December  7,  1843,  December  n, 
1845;    Genius  of  Liberty,  September  18,  1841. 


376  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

eleven  churches  on  it  and  twenty  appointments.  There  was  a 
hot  antislavery  protest  from  Methodists  at  Florid  as  early 
as  1839.  In  1845,  however,  in  connection  with  the  case  of 
Bishop  Andrews,  antislavery  pronouncements  began  to  appear 
in  the  ranks  of  the  Methodists  proper.  Still,  next  year  the 
Western  Citizen  complained  that  the  Rock  River  conference 
had  done  nothing  but  denounce  abolitionists  in  its  last  meet- 
ings.22 A  year  later  the  Visitor  accused  it  of  trying  to  cover  up 
attacks  on  its  members  for  holding  and  selling  slaves. 

The  Baptists  dealt  more  in  accord  with  their  inherent  cen- 
trifugal qualities.  In  1843  the  Citizen  complained  that  in 
Shurtleff  College  free  speech  on  slavery  was  gagged.  The 
Northwest  Baptist  Association,  it  was  complained,  defeated  by 
trickery  in  1844  a  non-fellowship  pronouncement.  In  the  same 
year  an  antislavery  mass  meeting  of  all  the  Baptist  churches 
in  Illinois  was  called  to  meet  at  Warrenville.  This  meeting 
called  for  the  establishment  of  an  antislavery  newspaper  and 
accordingly  on  January  16,  1845,  tne  Elgin  Western  Christian 
began  publication  under  the  direction  of  the  Northwestern 
Baptist  Antislavery  Convention.  In  its  first  number  it  ex*- 
plained  its  appearance  by  the  disappearance  of  the  Northwest 
Baptist,  as  a  result,  it  claimed,  of  an  attempt  to  remain  neutral 
on  the  slavery  issue.  It  attacked  in  the  course  of  the  year  the 
Quincy  and  Illinois  river  associations  for  not  standing  up  to  the 
issue.  The  paper  was  not  abolitionist,  but  it  was  outspoken 
against  slavery,  and  it  maintained  a  war  on  the  Baptist  Helmet 
for  printing  advertisements  of  Negroes  committed  to  jail.  The 
Universalists  were  frankly  antislavery,  but  the  Episcopalian 
bishop,  Philander  Chase  of  Jubilee  College,  was  repeatedly 
attacked  for  hedging.23  With  Chase  the  needs  of  his  dear  col- 
lege swallowed  up  all  other  considerations. 

^  22  Genius  of  Liberty,  March  29,  1839,  July  10,  November  27,  1841 ;  Western 
Citizen,  July  26,  1842,  August  3,  1843,  March  21,  1844,  February  13,  1845,  Sep- 
tember 15,  1846;  Sangamo  Journal,  June  5,  1845. 

23  Western  Citizen,  April  27,  December  14,  1843,  October  31,  December 
26,  1844,  September  15,  October  20,  1846;  Western  Christian,  August  14,  22, 
1845;  Baptist  Helmet,  July  16,  August  13,  1845;  in  1844  the  Quincy  association 
voted  down  an  antislavery  resolution  and  Elgin  did  the  same  on  September 
19,  1844. 


THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION  377 

In  considering  the  existence  of  slavery  in  Illinois,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  review  a  line  of  supreme  court  decisions  which  defined 
its  nominal  status,  remembering  always  that,  since  the  slave  or 
Negro  was  less  capable  than  his  owner  of  defending  his  alleged 
rights,  the  probability  is  that  much  illegal  servitude  existed. 
Legally  whatever  servitude  there  was  had  to  be  based  on  the 
territorial  act  of  September  17,  1807,  as  adopted  by  the  Illinois 
legislature  on  December  13,  1812.  This  act  allowed  the  bring- 
ing into  Illinois  of  Negroes  above  fifteen  years  of  age  owing 
service  or  labor  and  the  indenturing  them  for  terms  of  years; 
Negroes  so  brought  in  under  the  age  of  fifteen  could  be  held, 
the  males  till  thirty-five  years  old  and  the  females  till  thirty- 
two.  Children  born  of  them  were  to  serve,  the  males  until  the 
age  of  thirty  and  the  females  until  the  age  of  twenty-eight. 
Further  the  act  provided  for  the  registration  of  Negroes 
brought  into  the  territory,  who  might  lawfully  be  held  till 
thirty-five  or  thirty-two  years  old.  Between  these  two  classes 
of  registered  and  indentured  Negroes,  as  will  be  seen,  the 
courts  were  later  to  distinguish.  The  state  constitution  pro- 
hibited the  further  introduction  of  slavery  except  for  the  in- 
denturing of  persons  of  age  while  at  perfect  freedom.  It  re- 
quired, however,  that  all  persons  indentured  without  fraud  or 
collusion  should  serve  out  the  terms  of  their  indentures  and 
that  registered  Negroes  should  serve  out  their  appointed  times ; 
and  it  provided  that  children  born  of  them  thereafter  should 
become  free,  males  at  twenty-one,  females  at  eighteen. 

In  the  twenties  the  state  supreme  court  decided  that  inden- 
tures to  be  valid  must  correspond  with  the  form  prescribed  by 
the  act  of  1807  and  that  registered  Negroes  might  be  sold  like 
other  property.24  But  in  Phoebe  v.  Jay  in  the  December  term 
of  1828,  Justice  Lockwood  undertook  an  analysis  of  the  whole 
legal  support  of  existing  slavery  in  Illinois.  He  pronounced 
the  act  of  1807  in  contravention  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787  and 
therefore  per  se  void.  Whatever  validity  it  had  arose  from 

24  Cornelius  v.  Cohen,  I  Illinois  (Breese),  131;  see  also  Choisser  <v.  Har- 
grave,  2  Illinois  (l  Scammon),  317  (318)  ;  Nance  v.  Howard,  /  Illinois  (Breese), 
242 ;  Phoebe  <v.  Jay,  i  Illinois  (Breese),  268. 


378  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  constitutional  confirmation  of  indentures  and  property 
rights  arising  from  it.  Indeed  he  pronounced  that  nothing  less 
than  the  voice  of  the  people  in  their  sovereign  capacity  could 
have  rendered  such  contracts  of  effect.  A  legislative  reenforce- 
ment  would  have  been  of  no  avail.  The  Ordinance  of  1787, 
he  believed,  had  been  so  far  abrogated  by  the  implied  assent 
of  the  people  of  the  state  and  of  congress  in  framing  the  con- 
stitution and  in  accepting  it. 

In  1836  the  legal  basis  for  existing  slavery  was  sharply  re- 
duced by  the  decision  in  Boon  v.  Juliet.  Speaking  for  the  court, 
Judge  T.  W.  Smith  pronounced  it  illegal  to  hold  to  service  the 
child  of  a  servant  registered  under  the  act  of  1 807.  He  argued 
that  the  constitutional  allowance  of  service  from  children  of 
registered  Negroes  was  based  on  a  misapprehension  of  the  in- 
tent of  the  act  of  1807  and  as  designed  to  limit  that  act  could 
not  be  interpreted  to  confer  a  right  not  granted  by  it.  It  had 
in  no  way  affected  the  rights  of  the  children  of  registered 
Negroes ;  and,  anything  in  the  constitution  to  the  contrary  there- 
fore, they  remained  free.  In  1840  and  1841  the  court  empha- 
sized the  fact  that  the  freedom  of  a  Negro  must  be  assumed 
unless  proof  of  his  being  legally  held  to  servitude  by  indenture 
or  otherwise  was  forthcoming.25 

In  1843  Andrew  Borders,  a  slaveholder  of  Randolph 
county,  was  involved  in  a  suit  designed  to  test  once  more  the 
validity  of  the  act  of  1807  as  it  concerned  indentured  servants. 
For  the  slave,  Trumbull  and  Koerner  argued  that  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787  was  still  binding  in  every  respect  and  would  be 
until  every  state  of  the  original  thirteen  consented  to  abrogate 
it,26  and  that  as  the  territorial  indenture  laws  were  nullities  no 
constitutional  provision  could  be  construed  to  give  them  effect. 
Judge  Scates,  however,  went  back  to  the  old  reasoning  in  his 
decision.  The  old  law  remained,27  though  in  the  case  of  Jarrot 

25  Kinney  <v.  Cook,  4.  Illinois  (3  Scammon),  232;  Bailey  v.  Cromwell  et  al., 
4  Illinois  (3  Scammon),  71. 

26  Borders  v.  Borders,  5  Illinois  (4.  Scammon),  341. 

27  Jarrot  v.  Jarrot,  7  Illinois  (2  Gilman),  i.     I  can  not  see  that  this  nec- 
essarily ended  holding  by  indenture  as  is  usually  supposed. 


THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION  379 

v.  Jarrot,  the  court  decided  that  in  view  of  the  prohibition  of 
1787,  slavery  could  not  exist  in  the  state  even  in  the  case  of  a 
Negro  descended  from  the  slave  of  a  French  habitant  of  the 
days  before  George  Rogers  Clark.  To  the  end  the  best  legal 
opinion  of  the  state  laid  upon  the  state's  own  constituent  assem- 
bly and  the  state's  own  conscience  the  sole  responsibility  for 
the  continuance  of  slavery  in  its  borders. 

Several  decisions  were  needed  to  define  exactly  the  right  of 
masters  to  bring  their  slaves  into  or  through  the  state  and  as  to 
the  rights  of  free  Negroes  within  it.  In  1842  Judge  Treat  in 
the  circuit  court  of  Sangamon  county  had  decided  the  law  of 
1829  allowing  the  taking  up  and  selling  of  the  blacks  without 
freedom  papers  to  be  unconstitutional.  In  1 843  John  D.  Caton 
in  a  decision  in  the  circuit  court  of  Bureau  county  laid  down 
the  principle  that  a  slave  voluntarily  brought  to  the  state  was 
thereby  freed.28  That  same  year,  however,  in  Willard  v. 
People,  Scates  laid  down  the  principle  that  the  slave  of  a  mas- 
ter passing  through  the  state  was  not  therefore  freed. 

Fine  legal  distinctions  and  principles  apart,  slavery  and 
antislavery  men  in  Illinois  contended  as  light  and  darkness. 
Kidnapping  on  a  wholesale  scale  went  on  in  the  south;  at  Shaw- 
neetown  an  attempt  was  made  to  sell  south  sixty  free  blacks  on 
the  pretext  of  flaws  in  their  papers  of  manumission.  On  the 
other  side  there  was  as  much  assiduity  and  as  much  provoking 
defiance  in  the  attitude  of  those  who  sought  to  help  runaways  to 
escape.  In  1844,  Gross  was  in  jail  for  seeking  to  help  run- 
aways to  escape.  The  year  before  Owen  Lovejoy  was  indicted 
in  Bureau  county  for  helping  two  Negro  women  —  the  occasion 
of  Caton's  decision.  In  1843  too>  Dr.  Richard  Eells  of 
Quincy  was,  in  the  circuit  court  under  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
fined  $400  for  aiding  a  fugitive  slave,  a  decision  later  sustained 
by  Judge  Shields  of  the  Illinois  supreme  court.  On  the 
strength  of  the  notoriety  gained  in  this  case  Eells  was  elected 
president  of  the  Illinois  Antislavery  Society  in  1843  ar|d 
nominated  as  the  liberty  party  candidate  for  governor  in  1846. 

28  Harris,  History  of  Negro  Slavery  in  Illinois,  109,  112. 


38o  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

Chicago  was  a  dramatic  center  of  activity.  In  1 846  a  mob  of 
some  two  thousand  assisted  in  spiriting  away  two  fugitive 
slaves  under  the  very  nose  of  a  justice  of  the  peace.  At  Chi- 
cago and  in  Kendall  county,  Negroes  put  up  to  sale  were 
hired  out  for  twenty-five  cents  and  similar  sums.  Slaveholders 
were  served  notice  by  the  Western  Citizen  that  if  their  slaves 
ever  reached  northern  Illinois  their  chance  of  recovering  them 
was  slim,  and  a  Kane  county  convention  in  the  same  year  re- 
solved that  Kane  county  was  as  safe  for  runaways  as  Canada. 
In  its  issue  of  July  13,  1844,  the  Western  Citizen  printed  a  car- 
toon of  the  underground  railway  that  is  perhaps  Illinois'  first 
political  newspaper  cartoon.  Missouri  slave  hunters  on  the 
other  hand  threatened  and  perhaps  did  commit  arson  in  revenge 
and  offered  rewards  for  the  delivery  across  the  river  of  promi- 
nent officials  of  the  underground  railway.  In  the  Illinois  legis- 
lature petitions  began  to  appear  against  the  black  code,  with 
whig  as  well  as  abolitionist  support;  and  on  the  other  side 
measures  were  passed  penalizing  the  assisting  of  fugitive 
slaves.29 

The  slavery  conflict  too  had  its  reflection  more  and  more 
in  national  politics  within  the  state.  The  Chicago  American 
was  disposed  to  praise  John  Quincy  Adams'  stand  on  the  right 
of  petition.  In  1 842—1 843  all  the  Illinois  representatives  voted 
against  abolition  petitions.  In  1843-1844  all  the  representa- 
tives but  Hardin  voted  for  the  gag  resolutions;  but  the  next 
year  the  abolition  vote  had  perhaps  caused  Wentworth  to  see 
the  light,  and  he  had  voted  with  Hardin  against  the  gag.  In 
the  election  of  1844  the  whigs  had  been  inclined  to  play  for 
abolition  votes,  and  such  papers  as  the  Citizen  endeavored  to 
head  them  off  by  attacks  on  Clay.  After  the  election  they 
attempted  to  lay  on  the  shoulders  of  the  abolitionists  the  blame 
for  the  admission  of  Texas  to  the  union  by  the  proslavery 

29  Sangamo  Journal,  December  5,  1844,  January  16,  April  3,  1845;  Western 
Citizen,  November  18,  1842,  January  13,  March  23,  30,  November  2,  1843,  Jan- 
uary ii,  July  18,  August  3,  December  n,  1844,  February  20,  March  6,  1845, 
June  23,  October  27,  November  5,  17,  1846;  Chicago  American,  April  25,  1842; 
Illinois  State  Register,  January  24,  1845;  Belleville  Advocate,  May  6,  1845; 
Chicago  Daily  Journal,  January  9,  28,  March  12,  1845. 


THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION  381 

democrats  of  the  south.  They  affected  to  believe  that  at  Chi- 
cago the  Democrat  and  the  Citizen  were  trying  to  break  up 
the  whig  party  and  to  divide  it  on  the  issues  of  abolitionism 
and  nativism.30  And  they  entreated  the  southern  whigs  not 
to  be  misled  by  such  attempts. 

It  was  the  democratic  party,  however,  that  was  destined 
to  be  broken  by  the  slavery  issue.  Wentworth,  in  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  southern  leaders  of  his  party  on  rivers  and  harbors 
and  the  tea  and  coffee  tax,  moved  toward  antislavery  in  poli- 
tics so  far  as  the  Wilmot  proviso.  This  action  the  Western 
Citizen  ascribed  to  the  influence  of  Lewis  Cass.  Wentworth 
nevertheless  was  the  only  Illinois  member  who  supported  the 
Wilmot  proviso  in  1846,  Douglas,  Ficklin,  Hoge,  and  McCler- 
nand  voting  to  lay  it  on  the  table  and  Baker  and  Smith  not 
voting.  The  whig  papers  in  Illinois,  while  continuing  to  berate 
the  abolitionists  severely,  especially  for  opposing  the  Mexican 
War,  were  inclined  to  be  antislavery  in  their  attitude.  In  the 
next  session  Wentworth's  opposition  to  the  south  and  to  south- 
ern measures  was  as  strongly  marked  as  ever,  but  Hoge  was 
the  only  other  Illinois  member  he  could  draw  with  him  on  the 
vote  for  the  proviso.  In  the  coming  election  Wentworth 
affected  to  believe  that  it  would  be  a  northern  democrat  against 
a  slaveholder  such  as  Taylor;  and  he  naturally  denounced  as 
mere  pretense  the  whig  antislavery  attitude,  in  view  of  their 
prospective  candidate.  He  was  disposed  to  have  the  demo- 
crats stand  against  slavery  and  for  free  trade  on  necessities 
not  provided  by  American  labor.31 

A  little  more  than  two  decades  since  the  decision  of  the 
state  on  the  exclusion  of  slavery  had  seen  the  question  develop 

30  Chicago  American,  March  16,  1842,  December  n,  1844,  March  31,  1845; 
Congressional  Globe,  27  congress,  3   session,   31,   106,  28   congress,    i   session, 
56,  133,  28  congress,  2  session,  7.     Western  Citizen,  December  21,  1843,  March 
28,  May  23,  June  27,  July  18,  1844;  Illinois  State  Register,  April  26,  1844;  Chicago 
Democrat,  April  28,   1844;    Chicago  Dally  Journal,   March    n,    15,   21,    184$; 
Alton  Telegraph,  March  22,  1845. 

31  Chicago  Democrat,  February  2,  23,  March  2,  June  30,  1846,  February  9, 
March  2,  30,  April  27,  May  u,  25,  1847;    Western  Citizen,  July  28,  1846;    Con- 
gressional  Globe,   29   congress,    i    session    1217,    29   congress,    2   session,    425; 
Chicago  Dally  Journal,  March  17,  June  13,  August  26,  1846;  Sangamo  Journal, 
September  17,  1846. 


382  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

in  unexpected  ways.  A  process  of  legal  limitation  on  the  tol- 
eration of  slavery  and  indenture  was  to  have  been  expected. 
But  otherwise  as  against  the  lawless  kidnapping  of  free  blacks 
always  prevalent,  there  had  arisen  on  the  antislavery  side  an 
elastic  organization  for  the  assistance  of  runaway  slaves. 
Garrisonian  abolitionism  arose  in  the  east  and  spread  to  Illi- 
nois, quickening  the  minds  of  intelligent  men  whether  they 
approved  or  disapproved.  Antislavery  sentiment  waxed  till 
once  more  it  could  support  newspapers  and  muster  respectable 
votes  for  its  candidates.  Thirty  years  after  the  admission  of 
Illinois  to  the  union,  the  United  States  was  once  more  riven 
on  the  question  of  slavery;  and  the  two  great  political  parties 
that  had  meanwhile  developed  on  other  issues  were,  as  against 
the  abolition  and  liberty  parties,  seeking  their  advantage  in  it. 


XXI.     ILLINOIS  IN  FERMENT 

THE  closing  years  of  the  period  under  review  witnessed 
the  eager  efforts  of  Illinois  to  find  itself  economically. 
From  1830  to  1840  the  population  had  grown  from  157,000 
to  476,000;  and  still  growing,  the  state  was  trying  to  give 
expression  to  the  pent-up  energy  within  it.  Experiments 
flourished;  the  inhabitants  of  Illinois,  conscious  of  hidden 
riches,  sought  by  means  of  a  diversity  of  crops,  a  multiplica- 
tion of  towns,  and  sectional  divisions  to  discover  the  key 
which  would  unlock  the  treasure  and  open  the  way  to  high 
reward. 

Farmers  began  to  grope  somewhat  uncertainly  for  better 
methods  in  securing  the  bounty  of  the  rich  prairie  soil.  In 
the  late  thirties  and  early  forties  the  dwellers  in  the  Illinois 
river  counties  led  in  the  formation  of  county  agricultural  soci- 
eties for  the  discussion  of  farm  problems.  In  1841  the  Union 
Agricultural  Society  began  publishing  the  Union  Agriculturist 
and  Western  Prairie  Farmer,  which  two  years  later  became 
the  Prairie  Farmer,  a  newspaper  that  in  time  both  directed  and 
reflected  the  agricultural  activities  of  the  state.1  Experiment 
followed  experiment;  flax,  mustard  seed,  cotton,  and  tobacco, 
the  cultivation  of  hemp,  of  the  castor  bean,  and  of  the  mul- 
berry tree  were  in  turn  get-rich-quick  crazes  of  the  day.  At 
one  time  a  nursery  in  Peoria  had  200,000  mulberries  and 
100,000  cuttings  for  sale;  with  every  purchase  of  trees,  silk- 
worm eggs  were  furnished  free.  In  1841  agricultural  societies 
were  awarding  prizes  for  the  best  cocoons.2  The  great  staple 
crop  still  remained  wheat;  in  1833  the  Illinois  crop  was  esti- 

1  Scott,  Newspapers  and  Periodicals  of  Illinois,  53. 

2Bateman  and  Selby,  Historical  Encyclopedia  of  Illinois,  2:243-244;  His- 
tory of  Winnebago  County,  303-304. 

383 


384  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

mated  at  1,500,000  bushels,  and  farmers  were  urged  to  plant 
more  of  it.3 

There  could  be  no  great  expansion  in  agricultural  activi- 
ties, however,  without  even  greater  improvements  in  imple- 
ments. Throughout  the  thirties  there  was  still  in  use  the 
most  primitive  bar-share  plows,  which  made  no  pretense  of 
"scouring."  In  an  effort  to  improve  these,  moldboards  of 
cast-iron  were  first  substituted,  in  turn  to  give  way  to  those 
of  polished  steel.  Necessity  was,  indeed,  the  mother  of  inven- 
tion, and  every  blacksmith  with  a  knack  of  "tinkering"  was 
trying  his  hand  at  a  plow.  There  was  the  early  "  Clark," 
then  the  "  Diamond,"  the  "Tobey  and  Anderson,"  the  "Gary," 
the  "Jewitt,"  with  rivals  not  so  well  known  in  every  county, 
all  warranted  to  "  scour."  4 

Efforts  to  improve  or  invent  farm  machinery  were  not 
confined  to  one  form  of  labor-saving  device.  Cotton  gins, 
headers,  self-rakes,  corn  planters  were  tried  out  with  varying 
success.  An  advertisement  in  the  Illinois  Advocate  in  1835 
declared  that  a  machine  had  been  invented  that  successfully 
performed  the  five  operations  of  harrowing,  opening  the  fur- 
row, dropping  and  covering  the  seed  corn,  and  finally,  remov- 
ing all  clods  not  broken  by  the  harrow.  A  letter  to  the  Alton 
Spectator  as  early  as  1833,  while  urging  the  farmers  to  clean 
their  wheat  better,  suggested  the  use  of  the  threshing  machine ; 
and  this  continued  to  be  discussed  until  in  1846  and  1847  the 
reaping  machines  of  Bachus  and  Fitch  of  Brochport  and  of 
Cyrus  McCormick  absorbed  interest.5  To  the  farmer  on  the 
treeless  prairies  of  northern  Illinois  fencing  was  a  problem  — 
a  very  serious  one.  The  earliest  substitutes  for  rails  were  sod 
ditches  or  embankments;  in  1839  thorn  hedges  began  to  be 
suggested;  and  by  1847  Jonathan  Baldwin  Turner  had  paused 
from  his  other  interests  to  experiment  with  the  possibilities 

3  Illinois  Advocate,  June  22,  1833. 

4  Belleville  Advocate,  March  10,  1842;   Hicks,  History  of  Kendall  County, 
400;  Ballance,  History  of  Peoria,  124-125;  Rice,  Peoria,  1:284. 

5  Alton  Spectator,  April  23,  1833;  Alton  Telegraph,  August  21,  1841,  August 
9,  1845;  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  June  12,  July  2,  24,  28,  1846. 


Population  of  Illinois 
per  Square  Mile  in 
1840 


ILLINOIS   IN    FERMENT  385 

of  the  Osage  orange  which  was  to  be  popular  until  the  advent 
of  modern  wire  fencing.6 

Throughout  this  period  the  handling  of  livestock  in  Illi- 
nois was,  with  a  few  rare  exceptions,  unscientific,  inefficient, 
and  haphazard.  In  the  northern  part  of  the  state  there  was 
the  very  practical  difficulty  of  housing  and  feeding  during  the 
severe  winters.  In  1836  Dr.  J.  W.  S.  Mitchell  of  Champaign 
county  believed  he  had  demonstrated  that  his  herd  of  blooded 
shorthorn  Durhams  could  be  wintered  as  well  as  ordinary 
stock;  a  year  later,  however,  he  sold  out. 

Aside  from  these  practical  considerations  stock  improve- 
ment met  a  curious  and  unintelligent  opposition  from  the 
small  farmers.  Among  the  influential  the  necessity  of  devel- 
oping better  herds  was  so  clear  that  "the  legislature  passed 
a  law,"  writes  Governor  Ford,  "  for  the  improvement  of  the 
breed  of  cattle,  by  which  small  bulls  were  prohibited,  under 
severe  penalties,  from  running  at  large.  On  this  last  occasion 
no  one  dreamed  that  a  hurricane  of  popular  indignation  was 
about  to  be  raised,  but  so  it  was:  the  people  took  sides  with 
the  little  bulls.  The  law  was  denounced  as  being  aristocratic, 
and  intended  to  favor  the  rich,  who,  by  their  money,  had  be- 
come possessed  of  large  bulls,  and  were  to  make  a  profit  by 
the  destruction  of  the  small  ones."8 

Leading  stock  growers  of  the  day,  notably  Richard  Flower, 
were  as  much  interested  in  the  raising  of  sheep  as  of  cattle. 
Attempts  were  made  to  improve  the  breeds  of  sheep  and  to 
foster  wool  growing.  Interest  spread  to  such  an  extent  that 
in  1842  wool  in  considerable  quantities  was  brought  to  the 
Chicago  market.9 

Marketing  of  farm  produce  wove  itself  deeply  into  the 
business  life  of  the  state.  Trade  had  many  centers  —  every 
thriving  village  hoped  to  become  an  Alton.  Belleville  was 

8  Sangamo  Journal,  July  26,  1839,  November  19,  1841;  Belleville  Advocate, 
October  7,  1847. 

7  Western  Citizen,  April  13,  1836. 

8  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  107-108. 

9  Sangamo  Journal,  December  17,  1841,  October  23,  1842;  Chicago  American, 
June  27,  1842;  Alton  Telegraph,  July  26,  1845. 


386  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

boosted  in  season  and  out  by  a  group -of  citizens  headed  by 
John  Reynolds.  The  Belleville  Advocate  was  eager  that 
Belleville,  closely  allied  to  St.  Louis  in  trade,  should  grow  as 
its  greater  neighbor  grew  but  pointed  out  the  danger  of  being 
engulfed  in  the  prosperity  of  that  city.  Farmers  of  the  vicin- 
ity were  urged  to  avail  themselves  of  the  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  marketing  their  goods  at  Belleville  instead  of 
at  the  larger  place.  It  was  pointed  out  that  they  avoided 
thereby  the  bad  roads,  inclement  weather,  the  mishaps  of  the 
long  trip,  and  the  crossing  of  the  Mississippi  river,  at  times 
so  dangerous,  with  the  uncertainty  of  the  market  price  at  the 
end.  In  Belleville  was  a  ready  market  for  wheat  and  hogs 
at  cash.10 

Belleville  papers  were  quick  to  resent  the  "  cracking  up  " 
of  the  northern  part  of  the  state  at  the  expense  of  the  southern. 
They  repudiated  the  idea  that  their  section  was  made  up  of 
"swamps,"  and  "low,  flat,  inundated  prairies,"  that  its  popu- 
lation was  "thriftless,"  or  its  seasons  "sickly;"  they  stated 
that  "  notwithstanding  the  depression  of  all  kinds  of  business, 
embarrassment  from  debt,  and  the  number  of  emigrants  that 
have  left  this  part  of  the  State  within  half-a-dozen  years,  the 
increase  of  the  population  in  the  counties  south  of  a  line  drawn 
across  the  State  from  Alton  by  Vandalia  to  Palestine,  from 
September,  1840,  to  September,  1845,  by  the  State  census,  has 
been  48,574  in  32  counties  .  .  .  a  gain  of  31  per  cent."11 
The  Belleville  Advocate  for  January  20,  1842,  set  forth  how 
Illinois  could  be  "  disenthralled  from  her  present  prostrate 
condition.  .  .  .  The  important  object  is  to  discover  the 
central  river  port  .  .  .  whence  the  whole  State  might  be 
recruited  and  resuscitated  and  which  might  be  employed  as  the 
commercial  fulcrum,  moving  either  end  of  the  State  by  its 
power  of  centrality  —  and  where  is  this  central  point  if  not 
opposite  to  St.  Louis?  ...  If  the  State  has  now  small 
means,  the  only  rational  plan  is  to  select  a  spot  where  small 

10  Belleville  Advocate,  December  30,  1841,  December  10,  1846. 

11  Ibid.,  July  2,  1846. 


ILLINOIS   IN    FERMENT  387 

means  will  produce  the  greatest  amount  of  effect,  and  where 
is  this  .  .  .  but  opposite  St.  Louis?" 

In  spite  of  jealous  assertions  that  the  population  of  Alton 
was  declining  and  its  population  withdrawing,  that  city  still 
held  its  commanding  position  as  the  market  of  the  state.  Its 
newspapers  bitterly  protested  at  the  absurdity  of  irreverent  leg- 
islators declaring  that  its  market  was  glutted  by  one  keg  of 
butter  and  two  dozen  chickens.  It  pointed  out  its  very  real 
advantage  over  Chicago,  where  lake  navigation  was  suspended 
by  ice  when  Alton's  port  was  still  open.  The  Telegraph  in 
1847  declared  that  the  older  business  houses  had  been  swept 
away  in  the  panic  of  1837—1838,  scarcely  two  or  three  out  of 
forty  or  fifty  surviving  and  that  only  a  few  of  the  former  citi- 
zens remained.  The  ultimate  consequences,  however,  were 
beneficial;  business  was  on  a  better  and  more  healthy  basis; 
there  was  less  selling  to  retailers  on  long  credits,  goods  being 
sold  for  cash  or  produce.  In  the  fall  the  Telegraph  regularly 
celebrated  the  huge  pork  packing  business  done;  it  commented 
on  the  fact  that  more  beef  and  pork  packers  were  attracted  to 
Alton  year  by  year;  and  it  assured  the  farmers  that  they  could 
get  the  best  prices  there  —  better  than  at  St.  Louis  or  New 
Orleans,  since  Alton  pork  packers,  in  return  for  offal,  paid  ten 
cents  for  slaughtering.  In  1843  farmers  were  bringing  beeves 
to  Alton  to  be  slaughtered  instead  of  selling  them,  as  hitherto, 
to  drovers  to  be  driven  to  the  eastern  markets.  The  Telegraph 
was  similarly  loyal  in  its  insistence  that  Alton  was  destined  to 
be  the  grain  market  of  the  west.12 

So  strove  the  southern  cities,  while  in  the  northern  corner 
of  the  state,  close  to  the  lake  it  was  rapidly  controlling,  Chi- 
cago waxed  mighty.  A  shift  in  the  avenue  of  trade  assisted 
its  growth.  Ever  since  1763  Philadelphia,  and  later  Baltimore, 
had  monopolized  the  trade  in  Illinois  by  way  of  the  Ohio 
river.  But  clever  advertising,  offers  of  long  credit,  the  build- 
ing of  the  Erie  canal  had  rapidly  shifted  this  commerce  from 

12  Alton  Telegraph,  January  4,  March  21,  1840,  June  23,  November  13,  20, 
1841,  August  27,  November  12,  1842,  January  7,  October  14,  21,  1843,  October  19, 
1844,  October  n,  18,  1845. 


388  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  to  New  York;  and  Chicago  was 
the  child  of  the  new  alliance.18  In  1832  it  had  been  a  tiny 
market  with  two  stores,  and  when  incorporated  the  following 
year  it  had  but  little  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  in- 
habitants. Then  within  the  next  few  years  there  sprang  up 
such  an  incredible  mushroom  growth  as  would  seem  to  belie 
stability.  In  May  of  1833  a  newcomer  saw  a  few  houses 
huddled  upon  the  shore  of  a  great  lake;  by  September  he 
records  "the  extraordinary  growth  of  Chicago  which  only  a 
little  while  ago  was  nothing  but  a  small  village.  Now  there  is 
a  street  a  mile  long,  and  soon  there  will  be  two  others  of  the 
same  length."  When  the  town  was  a  year  old  there  were  "  two 
thousand  inhabitants  .  .  .  and  every  day  you  see  vessels 
and  steam  boats  put  in  here  from  the  lake  crowded  with 
families  who  come  to  settle  in  Chicago.  Every  day  new  houses 
may  be  seen  going  up  on  all  sides."  14  Its  wide  streets  were 
constantly  filled  with  a  bustling,  busy  throng;  in  August 
of  1835  immigration  was  so  considerable,  that  with  flour  sell- 
ing at  $20  a  barrel,  there  was  fear  of  a  famine.  When  the 
city  was  four  years  old  it  had  a  population  of  about  8,000 ;  and 
one  hundred  and  twenty  stores,  twenty  of  which  were  whole- 
sale, were  required  to  transact  its  business.15  The  immediate 
result  of  this  immigration  was  to  make  Chicago  a  large  import- 
ing center;  in  1833  only  two  boats  had  visited  her  port;  but, 
during  the  season  of  1836,  456  entries  were  made,  bringing  in 
goods  worth  $325,203;  the  exports  they  carried  away  were 

13  Though   Chicago   papers   did   not   ignore  the   packing   industry,   in   1847 
"  Long  John  "  Wentworth  described  a  Chicago  packing  house  which  had  insti- 
tuted marvelous  economies  by  utilization  of  waste  parts,  had  a  daily  capacity  of 
one  hundred  and  thirty  head  of  cattle,  and  exported  its  products  mainly  to  the 
English  market.  Western  Citizen,  December  23,  1842;   Chicago  American,  Decem- 
ber 29,  1840,  December  14,  1842;    Chicago  Democrat,  October  18,  1845,  October 
1 6,  1847. 

14  Father  St.  Cyr  to  Bishop  Rosati,  Chicago,  September  16,  1833,  and  June 
n,   1834,  quoted  by  Garraghan,  "Early  Catholicity  in  Chicago,   1673-1843,"  in 
Illinois  Catholic  Historical  Journal,  volume  i,  number  i ;  Quaif  e,  Chicago  and 
the  Old  Northwest,  349. 

15  For  much  of  the  material  on  the  commercial  growth  in  Chicago  credit  is 
due  to  Judson  Fiske  Lee,  "  Transportation.     A   Factor  in  the   Development  of 
Northern  Illinois  Previous  to  1860,"  in  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Journal, 
10: 17-18. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  389 

valued  at  only  a  thousand  dollars.  Though  Chicago  used 
much  of  this  incoming  merchandise,  a  great  deal  was  destined 
for  inland  towns  that  had  discovered  the  cheaper  northern 
route.  But  an  economical  route  for  imports  would  present 
similar  gainful  inducements  to  exports,  and  the  fast  settling 
north  country  began  hauling  its  grain  to  Chicago,  and  within 
the  next  two  years  the  prices  this  central  market  was  able  to 
offer  brought  wheat  pouring  into  the  city.  Throughout  the 
season  of  1841  when  places  in  southern,  central,  and  northern 
Illinois  offered  but  fifty  cents  for  wheat,  Chicago  paid  an  aver- 
age of  eighty-seven  cents;  the  day  that  the  Peoria  market 
bought  wheat  at  forty  cents,  Chicago  paid  one  dollar. 
Farmers,  singly  or  in  groups,  and  throngs  of  teamsters  for 
inland  merchant  middlemen,  hauled  wheat  to  Chicago,  some- 
times from  250  miles  away.16  Lines  of  thirteen,  twenty,  or 
even  eighty  wagons  loaded  with  wheat  were  to  be  seen  en 
route  for  that  city.  Though  150  vessels  a  month  docked  at 
Chicago  in  the  season  of  1841,  they  were  insufficient  to  carry 
away  the  grain.  In  1842  there  were  705  arrivals  with  a  ton- 
nage of  117,711,  and  586,907  bushels  of  grain  were  sent  from 
the  port.  In  that  year  imports  were  valued  at  $664,347  and 
exports  at  $659,305,  for  Chicago  had  become  the  market  for 
"  about  one-half  the  State  of  Illinois,  a  large  portion  of  Indi- 
ana, and  a  very  considerable  part  of  Wisconsin." 17  Until 
1848  the  volume  of  wheat  exported  continued  to  increase  and 
Chicago's  strength  to  arise  from  its  preeminence  as  a  grain 
market. 

A  prevalent  opinion  among  the  farmers  of  the  day  was 
that  dealers  and  commission  men  cheated  them  on  the  market 
price,  an  idea  that  Wentworth  in  his  editorials  was  ready  to 
foster.  Year  after  year  he  claimed  that  dealers  and  whig 
papers  —  despite  the  angry  denials  from  both  —  were  in  league' 
to  cheat  the  producer;  and  in  the  face  of  the  great  warehouses 
Chicago  dealers  were  continually  building,  came  Wentworth's 

16  At  Ottawa  one  firm   alone,  in   1842,  advertised  for  fifty  teams  to   haul 
wheat  to  Chicago.     Ibid.,  23. 

17  Ibid.,  24. 


390  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

warning  that  the  usage  farmers  received  in  Chicago  would 
force  them  to  seek  Illinois  river  markets.  In  1846  the  remedy 
for  poor  prices  advocated  by  the  Prairie  Farmer  was  the 
stacking  of  wheat  until  a  larger  return  could  be  obtained,  but 
the  Chicago  Journal  believed  that  in  the  climate  of  Illinois  it 
would  not  keep  without  injury.  So  keen  a  contemporary  ob- 
server as  Thomas  Ford,  however,  regarded  the  practice  of 
hoarding  produce  as  one  of  the  formidable  difficulties  of  the 
day.  "  Let  the  price  be  what  it  might,  many  would  hold  up 
their  commodity  a  whole  year,  expecting  a  rise  in  the  mar- 
ket. ...  I  have  known  whole  stacks  of  wheat  and  whole 
fields  of  corn  to  rot,  or  to  be  dribbled  out  and  wasted  to  no 
purpose;  and  whole  droves  of  hogs  to  run  wild  in  the  woods 
so  as  never  to  be  reclaimed,  whilst  the  owner  was  saving 
them  for  a  higher  price.  ...  By  holding  back  for  a 
higher  price,  he  suffered  loss  by  the  natural  waste  of  his 
property,  by  laying  out  of  the  use  of  his  money,  by  losing 
the  many  good  bargains  he  could  have  made  with  it  in  the 
meantime,  and  by  being  compelled  to  purchase  dear  on  a 
credit,  and  pay  a  high  interest  on  the  debt  if  not  paid  when 
due. 

"This  practice  of  holding  up  property  from  the  market 
unless  the  owner  can  receive  more  than  the  market  price,  still 
[1847]  prevails  extensively  in  the  southern  and  some  of  the 
eastern  parts  of  the  State,  and  fully  accounts  for  much  of  the 
difference  in  the  degree  of  prosperity  which  is  found  there,  and 
in  the  middle  and  northern  part  of  the  State."  18 

Economic  conditions  were,  of  course,  profoundly  affected 
by  a  new  factor  that  was  just  beginning  in  this  period  the  im- 
portant role  it  later  played  in  Illinois  life  — the  coming  of  the 
foreigner  and  his  assumption  of  citizenship.  Up  to  this  time 
settlers  had  come  from  sister  states  and,  like  all  Americans, 

18  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  99-10x5.  The  large  barns  characteristic  of 
northern  farming  —  it  was  said  that  in  the  north  a  farmer  frequently  spent  $250 
on  his  house  and  $1,000  on  his  barn  —  helped  no  doubt  to  enable  them  to  take 
such  advice  without  the  losses  pictured  by  Ford,  though  he  asserted  that  "the 
New  England  population  make  it  a  rule  to  sell  all  their  marketable  property 
as  soon  as  it  becomes  fit  for  market,  and  at  the  market  price. "  Ibid.,  100. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  391 

were  of  many  parentages  —  English,  Irish,  Scotch,  and  Scotch- 
Irish,  with  some  Pennsylvania  Dutch;  but  all  had  been  in  the 
new  country  long  enough  to  have  become  essentially  American. 
In  the  thirties,  however,  conditions  in  most  of  the  northern 
countries  of  Europe  were  such  as  to  make  emigration  impera- 
tive. Illinois,  with  vast  fertile  prairies,  easy  of  access,  drew 
more  than  its  quota  of  the  newcomers.  I 

From  Germany  there  came  such  numbers  that  the  admix- 
ture of  Teutonic  blood  in  the  people  of  Illinois  was  to  furnish 
much  of  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  state.  At  the  close  of  the 
Napoleonic  wars  political,  religious,  and  economic  conditions 
in  Germany  were  distinctly  bad;  crop  failures,  over-popula- 
tion and  production  with  the  resulting  dire  poverty,  were  evils 
from  which  thousands  of  peasants,  laborers,  tradesmen,  stu- 
dents, and  professional  men  were  eager  to  escape  by  emigra- 
tion. 

At  just  this  time  was  published  Gottfried  Duden's  Bericht 
tiber  eine  Reise  nach  den  westlichen  Staaten  Nordamerlka's. 
In  1824  Duden,  a  graduate  in  law  and  medicine,  had  gone  to 
the  Mississippi  valley  and  bought  a  fertile  tract  of  land  in 
Missouri.  He  was  a  man  of  means;  and,  while  his  land  was 
being  cleared,  he  occupied  himself  in  writing  a  romantic  ac- 
count of  his  "  Garden  of  Eden,"  as  his  plantation  came  to  be 
known.  Imagination  colored  his  experiences;  he  exaggerated 
the  freedom  and  blessings  of  the  country  and  minimized  its 
hardships.10  To  many  Germans  the  book  was  like  an  answer 
to  prayer;  they  read  it  daily,  regarded  it  as  an  infallible  guide, 
and  under  its  sway  thousands  emigrated  to  Missouri.  The 
only  other  influence  directing  settlement  to  the  middle  west 
which  compared  with  this  book  in  strength  was  that  of  the 
"Giessener  Gesellschaft."  This  was  an  immigration  com- 
pany—  the  practical  vehicle  by  which  the  dream  of  founding 
a  German  state  within  the  United  States  was  to  be  realized; 
in  it  the  oppressed,  the  exploited,  the  idealistic,  were  to  find  a 
refuge  and  there  rear  a  model  society.  The  company  finally 

19Koerner,  Memoirs,  1:325-326. 


392  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

chose  Missouri  as  the  destination  for  the  thousands  who  re- 
sponded to  the  plan. 

This  wave  of  immigration  was  increased  by  the  failure  of 
the  revolution  of  1830  in  Germany;  many  highly  educated 
Germans,  leaders  in  their  own  country,  left  the  fatherland  for 
America;  and,  since  the  stream  of  immigration  had  started 
toward  the  Mississippi  valley,  it  was  natural  that  large  num- 
bers of  them  turned  their  footsteps  in  the  same  direction. 
Preferring  a  free  to  a  slave  state,  however,  the  leaders  deter- 
mined to  settle  within  the  regions  of  Illinois.  St.  Clair  and 
Madison  counties,  having  already  a  sprinkling  of  German  set- 
tlers, were  chosen  with  Belleville  as  the  center  of  the  first  im- 
portant German  settlement  of  the  state.20  Friends  in  univer- 
sity days,  fellow  members  of  the  "  Burschenschaften,"  the  Ger- 
man student  fraternities  of  a  political  cast,  here  began  together 
a  new  life  in  a  new  country.  Conspicuous  among  them  were 
Gustave  Koerner,  Theodor  Hilgard,  George  Bunsen,  and 
George  Englemann.  It  was  this  group  who  became  known  as 
the  "Latin  farmers"  of  Belleville,  for  they  knew  more  of 
Latin  than  of  land.  Most  of  them  had  no  agricultural  expe- 
rience, and  their  wives  were  unaccustomed  to  doing  their  own 
housework.  On  the  prairies,  however,  were  to  be  found  neither 
workmen  nor  housemaids,  so  that  these  people,  accustomed 
to  the  luxuries  of  Europe,  were  obliged  to  suffer  the  privations 
and  hardships  of  frontier  life.  Some  succeeded  and  some 
failed.  But  they  brought  to  Illinois  an  element  of  culture  and 
education  that  was  in  the  long  run  to  affect  the  life  of  the 
community.  From  the  first  they  made  no  effort  to  isolate  them- 
selves from  that  life;  though  they  furnished  themselves  with 
new  and  better  houses,  flowers  and  fruit  trees,  books  and 
music,  they  at  the  same  time  adapted  themselves  to  the  simpler 
social  standards  of  the  people  about  them  and  thereby  grad- 
ually elevated  the  ideals  of  western  life.  Their  influence  was 

20  In  Madison  county  Highland  became  the  home  of  an  important  German- 
Swiss  colony,  led  by  the  families  of  Kopfli  and  Suppiger.  Faust,  German  Ele- 
ment In  the  United  States,  i:  460;  Koerner,  Memoirs,  i:  327. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  393 

felt  in  farming,  in  commerce,  in  journalism,  science,  art,  and 
government. 

They  were  all  men  of  books,  and  it  is  therefore  not  surpris- 
ing to  find  that  in  1836  they  formed  a  "  Deutsche  Bibliotheks- 
Gesellschaft,"  and  started  a  library  in  Belleville,  which  was 
one  of  the  first  important  libraries  in  the  state;  in  it  were 
found  Latin  books,  Greek  books,  books  on  philosophy,  books 
on  subjects  of  which  the  pioneer  community  scarcely  knew  the 
name.21  From  the  first  they  manifested  their  interest  in  edu- 
cation and  gave  their  support  to  the  public  schools.  During 
the  first  winter  a  schoolhouse  was  erected,  and  Koerner  ap- 
pointed schoolmaster.  Their  genuine  love  of  music  modified 
and  cultivated  the  crude  singing  of  the  frontier,  and  the  first 
music  school  of  any  moment  owed  its  origin  to  their  initia- 
tive.22 

In  1850  there  were  thirty-eight  thousand  foreign  born  Ger- 
mans in  Illinois.23  From  Belleville  they  had  pushed  out  over 
the  whole  state,  but  particularly  into  that  region  opened  up  by 
the  Black  Hawk  War.  By  1847  several  German  newspapers 
had  been  organized.24  Gustave  Koerner  had  become  the 
accepted  leader  in  politics  and  he  soon  established  himself  as 

21  The  first  public  library  was  founded  at  Albion  in1  1818  and  a  year  later 
Edwardsville  had  a  subscription  library.  Buck,  Illinois  in  1818,  p.  169-170. 

22  Beinlich,  "  Latin  Immigration  in  Illinois,"  Illinois  State  Historical  Society, 
Transactions,   1909,   p.  213.    Ferdinand  Ernst  had  brought  over  a   colony  of 
Germans  to  Vandalia  in  1820  and   1821.    When  he  died  in  1822  his  personal 
property  was  listed  for  public  sale  in  the  Illinois  Intelligencer,  October  5,  1822; 
besides  German  carriages,  fine  broadcloth  coats,  and  pantaloons,  elegant  table 
linen   and   glassware,    looking-glasses,   clocks   and   watches,   thermometers,   hy- 
drometers,   and    spy    glasses,    there   were:    "one    elegant   wing    piano    forte; 
one  small  do,  one  elegant  steel  musical  instrument;    clarionetts,  flutes;    french 
horns,  bassoons ;    contra  bass ;    bass,  tenor  &  Common  fiddles  &c.  with  a  large 
and  elegant  assortment  of  music." 

23  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  census  figures  connote  "foreign  born" 
alone.    They  do  not  take  into  account  the  second  generation,  which,  though 
native  born  were  "  German  "  to  their  neighbors,  nor  does  it  indicate  German 
emigrants   from  other   states.    In  the  thirties   a   stock  company  of  Cincinnati 
Germans  formed  a  settlement  at  Teutopolis  in  Effingham  county;  Germans  from 
St.  Louis  and  Cincinnati  had  settlements  at  Havana  and  Bath,  Mason  county, 
Perry  in  Pike  county,  with  other  considerable  colonies  in  Woodford  and  La  Salle 
counties.    Pooley,  Settlement  of  Illinois,  495-496. 

24  Der  Freiheitsbote  fur  Illinois,  1840;  Adler  des  Westens,  1844;  Stern  des 
Westens,    1845;     Chicago     Volksfreund,    1845;     Illinois    Staats-Zeitung,    1847; 
Koerner,  Das  Deutsche  Element,  268,  276-278. 


394  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

one  of  the  powerful  figures  in  Illinois  through  the  influence 
which  he  exercised  over  his  countrymen.25  The  Germans,  in 
no  sense  susceptible  to  the  sway  of  a  political  "boss,"  could, 
however,  be  molded  into  agreeing  with  their  public  men  by 
rational  means.26  Koerner,  a  thoroughly  trained  and  capable 
lawyer,  early  perceived  that  in  this  country  law  and  politics 
went  hand  in  hand.  He  acquainted  himself  with  the  language, 
customs,  public  policies,  and  opinions  of  his  new  home  and  used 
his  knowledge  to  bridge  the  gap  that  its  absence  caused  be- 
tween Germans  and  natives.  He  wrote  a  legal  treatise  in 
German  to  inform  the  former  of  the  laws  of  the  state,  and  that 
they  might  learn  of  politics  he  published  a  paper  and  wrote  its 
editorials  to  supplement  his  activities  as  a  public  speaker. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  leading  Germans  had  shown 
marked  public  spirit,  and  that  the  majority  were  for  some 
years  too  much  occupied  with  the  economic  struggle  to  avail 
themselves  of  political  privileges,  the  Germans  aroused  the 
antagonism  of  the  "  native  Americans."  German  solidarity, 
the  idealistic  project  of  the  "  Giessener  Gesellschaft,"  and  the 
violent  criticism  of  American  institutions  and  customs  by  a 
few  of  their  number  aroused  a  resentment  and  fear  that  about 
1838  stimulated  the  formation  of  nativistic  American  socie- 
ties. The  Germans,  affronted  at  this  misunderstanding  of 
them  as  a  group,  drew  closer  together;  they  vented  their  anger 
at  the  nativists'  propaganda  in  most  outspoken  communications 
to  the  German  newspapers.  Koerner  translated  some  of  the 
strongest  and  most  exhaustive  of  these  articles  and  carried  them 
to  the  democratic  newspapers,  which  up  to  this  time  had  been 
only  lukewarm  in  their  attitude  toward  the  foreigners.  Faced 
now  by  a  definite  issue,  the  press  was  afraid  to  alienate  so 
numerous  a  body  of  voters  who  had  shown  a  preference  for 
democratic  party  principles.  They  took  the  leap,  published 
Koerner's  translations,  and  thus  the  democratic  party  became 
the  official  and  powerful  sponsor  for  the  aliens.  This  action 

25  For  the  political  phase  of  German  life  in  this  period  I  have  drawn  largely 
upon  an  unpublished  monograph  by  Miss  Jessie  J.  Kile. 

26  Koerner,    Memoirs,    i :  427. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  395 

was  sufficient  to  cement  the  imminent  alliance  between  demo- 
crats and  Germans ;  at  the  same  time  nothing  could  have  more 
impressed  the  state  with  the  strength  of  the  newcomers.  It 
"made  the  American  people  and  particularly  American  poli- 
ticians aware  that  there  was  a  large  population  among  them 
who  knew  their  rights  and  were  willing  to  maintain  them  and 
that  they  had  to  be  taken  into  account."27  Still  "native  born 
citizens"  continued  throughout  the  forties  to  raise  the  cry 
against  aliens,  in  spite  of  the  spirit  that  the  Germans  often 
expressed.28 

The  feeling  of  the  Germans  toward  their  adopted  state 
is  illustrated  by  the  following  resolution  of  thanks  to  Koerner 
for  his  stand  on  the  canal  bill  and  stay  law:  "  Resolved,  That 
the  German  citizens  of  Chicago  and  Cook  county  feel  pride 
and  gratification  that  one  of  their  countrymen  was  in  a  position 
to  repay  to  some  extent,  by  useful  action  as  a  public  servant, 
the  obligations  we  all  feel  to  the  State  of  Illinois  for  the 
liberality  towards  us  in  providing  us  a  haven  in  a  land  of 
freedom  and  extending  to  us  the  privileges  of  native  born 
citizens."29 

German  antagonism  to  those  who  persistently  misunder- 
stood them  never  abated,  and  they  joined  the  nativist  issue 
with  vigor.  It  was  the  big  plank  in  Koerner's  campaign  for 
the  legislature  in  i842;30  and  his  election  served,  not  only  to 
please  the  Germans,  but  to  allay  in  them  all  suspicion  of  nativ- 
ism  in  democratic  ranks.  He  was  the  first  German  legislator; 
and  in  fact  his  political  prominence  continued  conspicuous, 
since,  in  spite  of  the  respect  that  politicians  paid  the  German 
vote,  the  aspirations  of  these  new  citizens  were  modest,  and 
they  seldom  in  this  period  held  office.  In  1846  a  meeting  of 
Chicago  Germans  recommended  the  appointment  of  one  of 
their  number  as  deputy  sheriff,  and  the  following  year  only  one 

27  Koerner,  Memoirs,  1:424. 

28  It  was  sometimes  suspected  that  the  democrats  used  the  cry  of  "  nativism  " 
to  keep  the  Germans  from  joining  the  whigs. 

2a  Chicago  Democrat,  March  21,  1843. 
30  Koerner,  Memoirs,  i :  464-469. 


396  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

German  was  elected  as  delegate  to  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion. 

Although  the  German  element  in  Illinois  was  by  far  the 
most  numerous  and  powerful  of  foreign  groups,  yet  other  na- 
tionalities were  making  significant  contributions.  Illinois  had 
long  felt  the  influence  of  the  coming  of  individual  Irishmen — 
such  men  as  John  Reynolds,  Thomas  Carlin,  and  James  Shields. 
But  in  the  thirties  general  conditions  in  Ireland,  religious, 
political,  and  economic,  with  the  terrible  famines  of  1845  and 
1846  as  a  climax  to  misery,  led  all  who  could  to  flee  from  the 
country.  Irish  experience  in  agriculture  was  not  conducive  to 
a  desire  for  further  knowledge  of  it  even  in  a  new  environ- 
ment, and  the  Irish  tended  to  remain  in  the  large  cities  as  day 
laborers  or  factory  employees.  In  Illinois  the  great  need  of 
canal  labor  and  the  promise  of  good  wages  and  steady  em- 
ployment drew  thousands  of  this  class  to  the  state.  They 
settled  in  large  groups  all  along  the  line  of  the  canal  —  at 
Joliet,  Peru,  LaSalle,  and  over  the  adjacent  counties. 

For  ten  years  the  work  on  the  canal  dragged  on,  but  the 
financial  embarrassments  of  the  state  operated  to  change 
many  Irish  laborers  into  Irish  farmers.  Canal  scrip  could 
often  be  redeemed  only  in  canal  land.  Moreover,  when  in  the 
early  forties  work  on  the  canal  was  abandoned  altogether  for 
a  time,  the  laborers  went  into  neighboring  counties  and  took  up 
sections  of  land.  As  a  result  the  farming  population  along 
the  line  of  the  canal,  and  that  from  Peoria  northward  along 
the  Illinois  river  was  largely  Irish.  But  whenever  possible 
their  gregariousness  and  their  fondness  for  politics  and  ex- 
citement induced  them  to  remain  in  the  cities,  or  to  return  as 
soon  as  the  outside  demand  for  their  labor  declined;  Chicago 
continued  their  favorite  residence.31 

In  1850  there  were  twenty-eight  thousand  Irish  in  Illinois; 
their  Celtic  adaptability,  facility,  and  enthusiasm  tended  to- 
ward their  rapid  assimilation  into  the  general  population.  At 
the  same  time  a  certain  hot  and  aggressive  loyalty  to  all  things 

31  Pooley,  Settlement  of  Illinois,  499-501. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  397 

Irish,  together  with  the  bristling  qualities  of  their  primitive 
Celtic  temperaments,  drew  a  sharp  line  of  antagonism  between 
them  and  their  Anglo-Saxon  neighbors. 

English  emigration  to  Illinois  was  led  by  Morris  Birk- 
beck  and  the  Flowers  into  Edwards  county  in  the  early  days 
of  statehood,  and  from  that  time  many  isolated  English  fami- 
lies continued  to  make  their  way  to  the  Illinois  prairies.  In 
the  thirties,  however,  agricultural  and  industrial  conditions 
in  England  were  similar  to  those  throughout  northern  Europe ; 
they  fell  with  crushing  weight  on  the  small  tenant  farmers 
and  were  scarcely  to  be  borne  even  by  the  more  fortunate 
classes.  Wages  were  low,  tithes  and  taxes  exorbitant. 
"  Clergymen  urged  their  parishioners  to  emigrate  to  America 
where  wages  were  good.  The  London  Roman  Catholic 
Emigration  Society  hastened  to  complete  preparations  where- 
by various  parties,  each  with  its  clergyman  at  its  head  might 
find  new  homes  in  America." 32  Farmers,  trade-unionists,  day 
laborers,  and  professional  men  left  the  country.33  From  1845 
to  1847  emigration  to  the  United  States  doubled,  and  by 
1850  there  were  18,600  English  settlers  in  Illinois.  They 
were  not  the  most  happy  and  successful  settlers.  Adaptation 
to  life  on  the  prairies  was  difficult.  "Their  minds  were 
hampered  with  prejudices  in  favor  of  the  customs  and 
habits  of  the  mother  country,  which,  combined  with  the  lack 
of  those  qualities  that  make  good  pioneers,  kept  the  Eng- 
lish from  being  classed  with  the  successful  settlers  of  the  new 
country."  34 

The  Scotch,  on  the  other  hand,  upon  whom  economic  dis- 
tress had  also  forced  immigration,  were  markedly  successful. 
About  1834  they  began  to  form  settlements  in  Illinois  and  by 
1850  there  were  forty-six  hundred  settled  chiefly  in  the  north- 
western part  of  the  state.  Their  frugality,  industry,  and  so- 

32  Pooley,  Settlement  of  Illinois,  502. 

33  Mormon  missionaries  sent  to  England  were  there  singularly  successful  in 
making  converts.     In  1840  the  first  band  was  brought  over  and  by  1844  it  was 
estimated  that  of  the  sixteen  thousand   Saints   at   Nauvoo  ten  thousand  were 
English.    Ibid.,  503. 

34  Ibid. 


398  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

briety,  together  with  their  high  rank  as  agriculturists,  made 
them  a  valuable  asset  to  the  state. 

It  was  a  religious  rather  than  an  economic  or  political  mo- 
tive that  first  brought  Norwegians  to  America;  in  1825  a  band 
of  fifty  persecuted  Quakers,  under  the  leadership  of  Kleng 
Peerson,  came  to  New  York,  and  ten  years  later,  still  under  his 
guidance,  most  of  them  moved  to  the  more  promising  Illinois 
country.  They  settled  along  the  Fox  river  in  La  Salle  county, 
and,  after  a  preliminary  year  or  so  of  hardship,  prospered. 
Their  glowing  accounts  were  sent  back  to  friends  suffering 
from  hard  times,  scarcity  of  money,  and  shortage  of  crops; 
to  tell  such  people  about  "  rich,  rolling  prairies  stretching  away 
miles  upon  miles,  about  land  which  was  neither  rocky,  nor 
swampy,  nor  pure  sand,  nor  set  up  at  an  angle  of  forty-five 
degrees,  about  land  which  could  be  had  almost  for  the  asking 
in  fee  simple  and  not  by  semi-manorial  title,"  was  to  fire  their 
imaginations  with  "America  fever." 35  Of  this  country  many 
had  never  before  heard  the  name,  and  now  came  these  fabulous 
tales,  first  from  letters,  copied  by  hundreds  and  circulated  from 
parish  to  parish,  and  then  from  Ansted  Nattestad,  who  in  the 
spring  of  1838  came  from  the  far  land  to  visit  relatives  in 
Norway.  Eager  inquirers  sometimes  traveled  one  hundred  and 
forty  miles  to  see  him  and  learn  the  facts  concerning  America 
and  Illinois.  Nattestad  brought  with  him  the  manuscript  of 
Ole  Rynning's  "True  Account  of  America  for  the  Instruction 
and  Use  of  the  Peasants  and  Common  People,"  in  which  the 
author,  a  man  of  education  and  sympathy,  answered  the  ques- 
tions that  he  and  many  less  informed  than  himself  had  asked 
about  America.  Hardly  any  Norwegian  publication  has  been 
purchased  and  read  with  the  avidity  of  the  "American-book," 
which  was  packed  with  information  and  advice  that  reached 
many  a  circumscribed  parish  and  sent  adventuring  spirits  to 
the  new  land.36 

35  Babcock,  The  Scandinavian  Element,  28,  8x. 

88  Rynning  was  the  leading  spirit  of  the  ill-starred  Beaver  creek  colony  — 
a  party  of  fifty  Norwegians  who  first  intended  to  join  the  Fox  river  settlement. 
They  chose  their  site  in  the  late  summer  of  1837  when  its  grassy  verdure  gave  no 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  399 

It  was  natural  that  these  parties  of  emigrants  should  seek 
the  Illinois  settlements;  the  towns  of  Mission,  Miller,  Rut- 
land, Norway,  Leland,  Lisbon,  Morris,  and  Ottawa  sprang 
up  and  grew  rapidly  at  their  coming.  About  1840,  however, 
the  principal  stream  of  Norwegian  immigration  was  deflected 
into  Wisconsin,  just  when  Swedish  settlers  began  pouring  into 
Illinois.  Swedish  emigration,  instigated  at  the  outset  almost 
entirely  by  economic  motives,  was  early  directed  to  this  state 
through  the  influence  of  the  brothers  Hedstrom.  Olaf  Hed- 
strom,  who  was  one  of  a  handful  of  Swedes  emigrating  as  early 
as  1825,  had  been  converted  to  ardent  Methodism,  and  in  1 845 
was  put  in  charge  of  a  New  York  mission  where  he  accom- 
plished a  unique  work  among  the  incoming  Swedes.  His 
brother  Jonas  had  settled  in  Knox  county,  and  it  was  to  this 
region  as  well  as  to  Andover  and  Chicago  that  the  fatherly 
missionary  sent  the  multitudes  dependent  upon  him  for  advice 
and  direction.37 

In  1 846  the  persecuted  religious  sect  of  Jansonists  founded 
the  first  Swedish  settlement  of  considerable  size  at  Bishop 
Hill  in  Henry  county.  A  year  later  the  thriving  communistic 
and  religious  colony  numbered  four  hundred  settlers,  and  five 
years  after  their  coming  they  had  grown  to  eleven  hundred 
members  or  almost  one-third  the  population  of  Henry 
county.38 

By  1850  Scandinavian  immigration  had  added  to  the  state 
thirty-five  hundred  thrifty,  industrious,  and  intensely  Protestant 
citizens.  Though  chiefly  agriculturists,  concerned  with  win- 
ning a  freehold  for  themselves  and  founding  an  honorable 
family  competence,  they  held  a  high  educational  standard  and 
were  remarkable  for  their  loyalty  to  the  public  school  system. 

hint  of  the  swamps  that  in  the  spring  made  cultivation  impossible  nor  of  the 
unhealthfulness  that  during  the  summer  caused  the  death  of  two-thirds  of  the 
company.  Rynning,  who  in  the  winter  had  employed  the  leisure  of  illness  by 
writing  his  Account,  was  one  of  the  victims  of  the  depopulating  malaria  the  fol- 
lowing summer.  Babcock,  The  Scandinavian  Element,  28-31;  Blegen,  "  Q\P 
Rynning's  True  Account  of  America,"  in  Minnesota  History  Bulletin,  2:221-232 

37  Babcock,  The  Scandinavian  Element,  54. 

38  Ibid.,  56-60. 


400  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

So  rapidly  did  this  large  body  of  recently  foreign  citizens 
take  their  place  in  the  body  politic,  that  when  the  national 
issue  of  the  Mexican  War  arose,  no  cleavage  in  the  state 
occurred.  Such  companies  as  that  of  Captain  James  F.  Eagan, 
who  organized  the  Ottawa  Irish  Volunteers  with  one  hundred 
and  forty-eight  on  the  roll,39  and  that  of  Captain  Julius  C. 
Raith  made  up  of  young  Germans  from  St.  Clair  and  Monroe 
counties  were  among  the  first  to  volunteer.40 

The  war  had  come  at  a  time  to  make  it  extremely  popular 
throughout  Illinois.  The  people  were  suffering  from  the  most 
stringent  "hard  times:"  money,  except  that  of  broken  banks, 
was  not  to  be  had;  repeated  failure  met  any  attempt  at  com- 
mercial or  industrial  enterprise;  farmers,  unable  to  market 
their  abundant  crops,  used  what  they  could  and  left  the  rest 
to  waste  in  the  field.  Suddenly,  to  the  pent-up  energy  of  the 
state  and  to  the  spirit  of  adventure,  came  the  call  to  arms. 
Causes  and  issues  were  hardly  considered;  party  lines  were 
swept  aside  in  the  response  that,  swift  and  enthusiastic,  came 
from  the  people.41 

A  favorite  employment  of  the  young  men  of  the  state  had 
been  the  organization  of  rifle  companies  which  drilled  and 
marched  and  displayed  themselves  in  full  regalia  in  Fourth 
of  July  parades  and  at  patriotic  meetings.  Now  these  compa- 
nies saw  a  chance  for  real  service  and  at  once  offered  them- 
selves. The  quota  which  Governor  Ford  had  been  asked  to 
furnish  from  Illinois  was  three  brigades  of  infantry.  His  call 
went  out  May  25,  1845;  ten  days  later  thirty-five  companies 
or  four  thousand  men  reported  to  the  governor.  Eager  cap- 
tains of  hurriedly  mustered  companies  rode  posthaste  to  the 
governor  with  letters  certifying  the  worth  of  their  men;  he 
who  first  arrived  was  accepted,  though  a  shift  was  sometimes 

39  Alton   Telegraph  and  Democratic  Review,  July  18,   1846. 

40  Koerner,  Memoirs,  1:495-496;  Faust,  German  Element,   1:459. 

41  Enthusiasm,  however,  was  keener  in  the  southern  and  central  parts  of  the 
state  than  farther  north  where  the  New  England  element  was  stronger.   Koerner 
remarked  on  the  lack  of  ardor   in   Stark  and  especially  in  the  more  northern 
counties  as  contrasted  with  that  in  St.  Clair  and  Madison.     Koerner,  Memoirs, 
i :  501. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  401 

made  when  the  credentials  of  another  indicated  that  his  men 
were  more  desirable.  There  was  much  jealousy  and  rivalry, 
and  the  four  thousand  who  had  not  been  in  time  to  be  accepted 
loudly  complained.42 

The  colonels  of  the  first  three  regiments,  enlisted  for  twelve 
months,  were  John  J.  Hardin,  William  H.  Bissell,  and  Ferris 
Forman.  E.  D.  Baker,  authorized  to  raise  an  additional  regi- 
ment, had  only  to  select  the  required  number  of  companies 
from  those  already  tendered.  When  a  second  call  for  troops 
was  made  in  April,  1847,  two  additional  regiments  enlisted 
for  the  duration  of  the  war  and  went  out  under  Colonels  W.  B. 
Newby  and  James  Collins.  Besides  these  six  regiments,  four 
independent  mounted  companies  were  accepted;  and  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  Illinoisians  enlisted  in  the  regular  army. 

The  troops  composed  chiefly  of  "  the  well  taught  youths  of 
our  farming  communities,  and  our  quiet,  moral  country 
towns,"43  started  south  with  an  enthusiasm  only  equaled  by 
that  at  home  which  sped  them  on  their  way.44  Companies 
rivaled  each  other  in  the  assiduity  with  which  they  drilled, 
marched,  and  perfected  their  organization.  They  furnished 
themselves  with  new  uniforms;  that  of  one  company,  for  in- 
stance, consisted  of  a  grey  forage  cap,  a  gray  frock  coat 
trimmed  with  black,  and  black  pantaloons;  and  in  addition  to 
their  rifles  this  company  was  armed  with  artillery  swords,  two 
feet  long,  two  inches  broad,  and  double  edged  —  a  formidable 
addition  to  their  offensive  at  close  quarters.45 

The  trip  down  the  Mississippi,  across  the  gulf  to  Texas, 
and  the  march  into  Mexico  was  an  education  to  these  provincial 
lads.  Plantations,  sugar  cane,  cypress  trees,  Spanish  moss, 
levees,  seasickness,  drill,  march,  discipline,  prickly  pear,  chap- 
arral, tarantulas,  and  Texans  were  words  that  appeared  in 

42  Alton   Telegraph  and  Democratic  Review,  July  18,   1846. 

*3  Belleville  Advocate,  August  12,  1847. 

44  Citizens  voluntarily  furnished  provisions,  blankets,  provisional  uniforms, 
and  flags  to  the  departing  boys.  Koerner,  Memoirs,  1:495. 

^45  Everett,  "Narrative  of  Military  Experience,"  Illinois  State  Historical 
Society,  Transactions,  1905,  p.  195,  196.  Although  percussion  rifles  had  been 
invented  some  years  before,  the  war  with  Mexico  was  fought  with  flint  locks. 


402  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

letters  home  and  indicated  a  wealth  of  new  experience.  In 
spite  of  the  hot,  steamy  climate,  the  dust,  poor  roads,  and  fre- 
quent sicknesses,  the  men  made  the  most  of  this  trip.  As 
venison  and  wild  grapes  varied  their  diet  of  salt  pork  and 
beans,  so  did  the  sight  of  a  new  vegetation,  architecture,  and 
people  vary  and  add  interest  to  the  monotony  of  long  marches 
under  trying  conditions. 

General  John  A.  Wool,  U.  S.  A.,  and  other  officers  of  the 
regular  army  had  a  merry  time  in  impressing  the  men  with 
the  serious  necessity  of  discipline,  for  an  artless  insubordina- 
tion pervaded  both  volunteers  and  officers.  Colonel  Forman 
at  one  time  threatened  to  walk  his  men  home,  and  when  Colo- 
nel Hardin  landed  he  did  not  march  his  men  directly  to  camp. 
"  I  will  take  away  your  commission,  sir,"  said  Wool.  "  By 
God,  you  can't  do  it,  sir,"  Hardin  hotly  replied.  Wool,  ad- 
mitted by  the  volunteers  as  a  splendid  soldier  and  first  rate 
disciplinarian,  was  still  thought  to  possess  "  too  much  regular 
contempt  for  volunteers."  46 

At  home,  the  doings  of  the  boys  at  the  front  were  eagerly 
followed.  The  spirit  of  democratic  papers  throughout  the 
state  did  not  flag.  The  State  Register  praised  the  legislature 
for  passing  unanimously  instructions  to  members  of  congress 
to  do  their  utmost  for  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war 
and  for  its  memorial  asking  bounty  lands  for  those  that  serve.47 
A  meeting  of  democrats  in  St.  Clair  county  late  in  November, 
1847,  appointed  a  committee  consisting  of  Gustave  Koerner, 
John  Reynolds,  William  H.  Bissell,  Lyman  Trumbull,  and 
William  C.  Kinney  to  express  the  sense  of  the  meeting  in  a  se- 
ries of  resolutions.  They  declared  that  the  object  of  the  war 
was  to  force  Mexico  to  relinquish  her  claims,  that  the  invasion 
of  Mexico  had  not  made  it  an  offensive  war,  but  that  indemnity 
in  land  or  money  had  become  a  legitimate  object  of  the  United 
States.  They  repudiated  the  idea  that  any  portion  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States  wished  to  conquer  territory  for  slavery 

46  Belleville  Advocate,  September  3,  1846. 

47  Illinois  State  Register,  February  5,  1847. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  403 

extension,  but  they  asserted  that  the  United  States  had  a  right 
to  govern  provisionally  the  conquered  territory  until  the  con- 
clusion of  peace;  they  claimed  that  no  declaration  of  congress 
as  to  the  cause  of  war  should  have  any  weight,  but  that  all 
citizens  should  support  the  government  in  attaining  indemnity 
in  land  or  money.  The  Register  was  strongly  in  favor  of 
the  tea  and  coffee  tax  for  it  supplied  the  money  necessary  to 
prosecute  the  war,  and  the  state  submitted  gladly  to  it  for 
that  reason.48 

Although  the  outbreak  of  the  war  had  been  hailed  with 
enthusiasm  by  the  people  of  the  state,  the  whig  press  at  best 
had  merely  acquiesced  in  the  war  and  became  gradually  more 
and  more  outspoken  in  its  condemnation  of  the  national  aims. 
In  September,  1847,  the  State  Register  charged  the  whigs  with 
being  traitors  to  the  country  and  devoted  three  columns  to 
quotations  from  party  organs  in  which  they  were  giving  "  aid 
and  comfort"  to  the  enemy.  Whig  opposition  to  territorial 
extension  was  in  democratic  eyes  analogous  to  the  opposition 
of  federalists  to  the  Louisiana  purchase.  At  the  same  time 
the  democrats  declared  it  a  political  move  to  deprive  their 
party  of  the  glory  of  adding  territory  to  the  country,  while 
forced  to  bear  the  responsibility  for  a  heavy  war  expenditure.49 
Whig  papers  in  turn  charged  that  democratic  members  "think 
it  a  cardinal  quality  of  national  greatness  that  we  are  able  to 
trounce  and  conquer  a  weaker  one,  and  in  justification  of  our 
course  with  Mexico,"  lay  down  "  the  supposition  that  because 
we  have  driven  out  the  Indians  from  their  ancient  homes,  and 
the  deed  being  just  and  humane,  the  people  of  New  Mexico 
and  California,  being  in  a  more  degraded  condition,  deserve 
the  same  treatment.50  They  pointed  out  the  dangers,  respon- 
sibilities, and  resulting  evils  from  annexation  that  the  war- 
loving  portion  of  the  people  seemed  light-heartedly  to  desire. 
The  State  Register  clung  staunchly  to  its  position  that  national 

48  Illinois  State  Register,  January  29,  December  10,  1847. 
4Q  Ibid.,  September  24,  October  i,  November  5,  26,  1847. 
50  Roc kford  Forum,  April  26,  1848. 


4o4  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

prestige  required  the  war  to  be  carried  to  a  successful  close; 
readiness  to  avenge  insult  of  national  honor,  it  regarded  as  a 
protection;  the  whigs  on  the  other  hand  cried  for  "peace, 
commerce  and  honest  friendship  with  all  nations,"  and  a 
"  speedy  close  of  the  bloody  tragedy,  too  long  enacted  at  our 
expense,  on  the  soil  of  another  Republic." 51 

Democratic  condemnation  of  individuals  who  opposed  the 
war  was  severe.  In  particular  Abraham  Lincoln,  whig  repre- 
sentative in  congress,  drew  this  fire.  Lincoln  in  speech  and  by 
consistent  vote  had  stigmatized  the  war  as  one  of  "  rapine 
and  murder,"  "  robbery  and  dishonor."  He  felt  that  Illinois 
had  sent  her  men  to  Mexico  "  to  record  their  infamy  and  shame 
in  the  blood  of  poor,  innocent  unoffending  people,  whose  only 
crime  was  weakness."52  On  December  22,  1847,  he  pre- 
sented in  the  house  the  famous  "  spotty  resolutions  "  in  which 
he  challenged  the  president's  statement  that  Mexico  had  "  in- 
volved the  two  countries  in  war,  by  invading  the  territory  of 
the  State  of  Texas,  striking  the  first  blow,  and  shedding  the 
blood  of  our  citizens  on  our  own  soil;"  he  pointed  out  that 
the  particular  spot  on  which  the  first  blood  was  shed  was 
Mexican  soil,  from  which  the  citizens  fled  at  the  approach  of 
the  United  States  troops;  and  that  it  was  the  blood  of  our 
"armed  officers  and  soldiers,"  whose  blood  was  first  shed.53 
To  Lincoln,  the  facts  admitted  no  other  interpretation  than 
that  the  war  was  "unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally  com- 
menced by  the  President." 

In  a  speech  before  the  house,  January  12,  1848,  he  de- 
clared that  President  Polk  "  is  deeply  conscious  of  being  in  the 
wrong;  that  he  feels  the  blood  of  this  war,  like  the  blood  of 
Abel,  is  crying  to  heaven  against  him;  that  originally  having 
some  strong  motive  ...  to  involve  the  two  countries  in 
a  war,  and  trusting  to  escape  scrutiny  by  fixing  the  public  gaze 
upon  the  exceeding  brightness  of  military  glory, —  that  attrac- 

slRockford  Forum,  March  22,  1848;  Illinois  Stale  Register,  November  5, 
1847. 

52  Belleville  Advocate,  March  2,  1848. 

53  Writings  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  2:20-22. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  405 

tive  rainbow  that  raises  in  showers  of  blood,  that  serpent's  eye 
that  charms  to  destroy, —  he  plunged  into  it,  and  was  swept 
on  and  on  till,  disappointed  in  his  calculation  of  the  ease  with 
which  Mexico  might  be  subdued,  he  now  finds  himself  he 
knows  not  where.  How  like  the  half-insane  mumbling  of  a 
fever  dream  is  the  whole  war  part  of  his  late  message ! " 54 

Though  Lincoln's  charges  may  have  borne  some  little  fruit 
in  enlightening  public  opinion  and  though  such  papers  as  the 
Rockford  Forum  gave  Lincoln  unqualified  support,  the  great 
majority  of  the  press  and  the  people  were  uninterested  in  hear- 
ing whys  and  wherefores;  to  them  this  was  an  attack  direct  on 
their  dearest  enthusiam.  Newspapers  and  public  meetings, 
flaunting  their  own  patriotism,  declared  Lincoln  a  second  Bene- 
dict Arnold.55  At  a  meeting  without  distinction  of  party  held 
in  Clark  county,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted: 

"Resolved,  That  Abe  Lincoln,  the  author  of  the  'spotty' 
resolutions  in  Congress,  against  his  own  country,  may  they 
long  be  remembered  by  his  constituents,  but  may  they  cease  to 
remember  him,  except  to  rebuke  him  —  they  have  done  much 
for  him,  but  he  has  done  nothing  for  them,  save  the  stain  he 
inflicted  on  their  proud  names  of  patriotism  and  glory,  in  the 
part  they  have  taken  in  their  country's  cause."  56 

The  fact  that  the  conduct  of  the  Illinois  troops  had  been 
especially  valorous  made  enthusiastic  supporters  more  bitterly 
resent  any  criticism  of  the  war.  Illinoisians  had  markedly  dis- 
tinguished themselves  at  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  February 
23,  1847.  General  Zachary  Taylor  commended  their  services 
as  follows:  "The  First  and  Second  Illinois,  and  the  Ken- 
tucky regiments  .  .  .  engaged  the  enemy  in  the  morn- 
ing, restored  confidence  to  that  part  of  the  field,  while  the  list 
of  casualties  will  show  how  much  these  three  regiments  suf- 
fered in  sustaining  the  heavy  charge  of  the  enemy  in  the  after- 
noon. In  this  last  conflict  we  had  the  misfortune  to  sustain  a 

54  Writings  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  2:38-39. 

55  Illinois  State  Register,  March  10,  May  26,  1848. 

56  Belleville  Advocate,  March  2,  1848. 


4o6  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

very  heavy  loss.  Colonels  Hardin,  McKee,  and  Lieut-Colonel 
Clay  fell  at  this  time,  while  gallantly  leading  their  commands. 
.  .  .  Col.  Bissell,  the  only  surviving  colonel  of  the  three 
regiments,  merits  notice  for  his  coolness  and  bravery  on  this 
occasion."  57 

When  Colonel  Hardin  fell  while  recklessly  leading  his  regi- 
ment in  a  desperate  charge,  Illinois  lost  a  popular  hero.  A 
man  without  much  outward  balance  —  crude,  artless,  almost 
stammering  in  speech  —  he  had  become  the  leading  whig  of 
the  state,  being  a  member  of  three  general  assemblies,  and  a 
representative  in  congress,  1843-1845.  Handsome,  impulsive, 
ingenuous,  his  very  handicaps  attracted  warm  friends. 

The  Third  and  Fourth  Regiments  distinguished  themselves 
in  the  campaign  against  the  city  of  Mexico  and  in  the  battle  of 
Cerro  Gordo,  April  18,  1847,  while  the  Fifth  and  Sixth,  though 
they  lost  severely  through  sickness  and  exposure,  arrived  too 
late  for  active  service. 

Illinois  treated  the  returning  volunteers  as  heroes,  every 
one.  Not  only  were  such  men  as  William  H.  Bissell,  John  A. 
Logan,  Richard  J.  Oglesby,  James  Shields,  Benjamin  M. 
Prentiss,  and  James  D.  Morgan  rewarded  with  high  places 
in  the  state,  but  in  their  home  communities  humbler  men  were 
recognized  with  county  and  township  offices.  In  Menard 
county,  for  instance,  five  returned  volunteers  were  elected  in 
August  of  1847  to  the  county  offices  of  judge  of  probate,  clerk 
of  the  county  commissioners'  court,  assessor,  treasurer,  and 
recorder.  Towns  and  counties  gave  public  dinners,  barbecues, 
and  Fourth  of  July  celebrations  to  welcome  the  returning  vol- 
unteers. Addresses,  speeches,  brass  bands,  fireworks,  cannon 
salutes,  and  enormous  crowds  of  enthusiastic  people  graced 
these  occasions.  Five  thousand  people  gathered  in  Spring- 
field while  an  equal  number  sat  at  the  public  board  in  Belleville 
at  the  barbecue.58 

Throughout  this  busy  period  Illinois  had  so  grown  and  de- 

57  Moses,  Illinois,  1:495-496. 

58  Illinois  State  Register,  July  9,  August  13,  1847. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  407 

veloped  that  the  old  constitution,  designed  for  a  frontier 
community,  was  felt  as  a  hampering  restraint.  Never  en- 
tirely satisfactory,  twenty  years'  experience  demanded  a 
change.  Popular  opinion,  newspapers,  whigs,  and  democrats 
condemned  the  old  constitution  and  urged  drastic  modifica- 
tion. The  question  of  revision  was  narrowly  defeated  in  1842 : 
four  years  later  the  answer  came  strongly  in  the  affirmative. 
One  hundred  and  sixty-two  delegates  were  elected  who  met 
in  Springfield  in  June,  1847,  to  begin  what  proved  to  be  the 
work  of  drawing  up  a  new  constitution.  Of  this  body,  large 
and  unwieldy,  a  majority  were  democrats  though  it  was  claimed 
the  proceedings  were  carried  forward  in  a  strictly  nonpartisan 
spirit.  The  convention  was  representative  of  western  democ- 
racy in  the  fact  that  contrary  to  custom,  there  were  only  fifty- 
four  lawyers  to  seventy-six  farmers  in  the  body.  The  debates 
which  the  newspapers  anxiously  watched  were  heated  and  long 
drawn  out.  After  a  three  months'  session  the  convention  fin- 
ished its  work  on  August  31  and  presented  for  the  considera- 
tion of  the  people  a  new  body  of  fundamental  law. 

A  mongrel  affair  —  the  natural  result  of  trying  to  meet  the 
demands  of  all  —  the  document  throughout  its  detailed  length 
made  a  valiant  effort  to  render  impossible  to  the  future  the 
unhappy  experiences  of  the  past.  Stupendous  debts,  reckless 
banking,  extravagant  legislation,  "life"  offices  —  these  were 
to  be  eliminated  together  with  the  particular  aversions  of  each 
party;  above  all  the  will  of  the  people  was  to  be  consulted 
and  heeded  in  new  places  and  to  a  much  greater  extent  than 
formerly.59  During  the  six  months  that  intervened  before  the 
referendum  the  newspapers  never  allowed  the  issue  to  languish. 
The  united  support  of  the  organs  of  each  party,  as  a  result  of 
the  compromises  with  which  the  new  document  bristled,  was 
given  with  a  sort  of  careful  lack  of  enthusiasm;  each,  jealous 
of  the  victories  gained  by  the  other  side,  was  accused  of  rais- 
ing the  cry  of  a  "party  constitution;"  yet  each  was  solicitous 

59  Quincy  Whig,  March  i,  1848;  Sangamo  Journal,  April  i,  1847;  Illinois 
State  Register,  February  26,  1847. 


4o8  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

that  party  bickering  should  not  alienate  the  final  support  of  the 
people.  It  was  said  that  only  six  papers  within  the  state 
consistently  opposed  the  constitution  and  were  alone  upheld 
in  their  opposition  by  the  judges,  their  political  appendages, 
and  the  small  fry  politicians.60  The  German  was  the  one  other 
element  of  opposition  to  be  really  feared.  The  whigs  had  in- 
sisted upon  the  limitation  of  the  franchise:  could  the  Germans 
swallow  so  bitter  a  pill?  Although  suffrage  was  to  be  guar- 
anteed to  all  adult  males  residing  in  the  state  at  the  time  of 
adoption  of  the  constitution,  would  they  suffer  the  substitution 
of  naturalization  and  a  year's  residence  for  the  six  months' 
residence  alone  required  before?  With  Koerner  combating 
ratification,  it  remained  a  question  whether  the  gains  in  other 
reforms  would  lead  the  Germans  to  overlook  the  measure  that 
had  won  unqualified  whig  support.61 

For  this  victory  of  their  opponents  the  disgruntled  demo- 
crats found  some  compensation  in  the  heads  of  the  obnoxious 
supreme  court  judges,  whose  duties  were  now  divorced  from 
the  circuit,  and  who,  along  with  all  other  state  and  county  offi- 
cers, were  made  elective  by  the  people.62 

To  meet  the  insistent  demand  for  retrenchment  and  at  the 
same  time  to  clip  the  wings  of  the  distrusted  legislature,  the 
number  of  representatives  and  state  officers  was  reduced  and 
all  salaries  were  fixed  at  absurdly  low  sums;  moreover,  the 
session  of  the  legislative  body  was  practically  limited  to  forty- 
two  days,  for  any  time  in  excess  of  that  period  was  paid  at  just 
one-half  the  regular  stipend  of  two  dollars  a  day.63  With  the 
keen  remembrance  of  internal  improvement  bills  still  heavy, 
the  state  was  forbidden  to  contract  any  debt  exceeding  fifty 
thousand  dollars  —  and  that  was  "to  meet  casual  deficits  or 
failures  in  revenue;"  nor  was  the  credit  of  the  state  "in  any 
manner  to  be  given  to,  nor  in  aid  of,  any  individual  associa- 

60  Qulncy  Whig,  February  23,  1848;  Illinois  State  Register,  August  6,  1847. 

61  Belleville  Advocate,  February  10,  1848;  Koerner,  Memoirs,  1:523. 

62  Chicago  Democrat,  January  14,  1848. 

63  Illinois  State  Register,  January  22,  1847;  Belleville  Advocate,  January  20, 
1848;  Quincy  Whig,  February  2,  1848. 


ILLINOIS   IN   FERMENT  409 

tion  or  corporation."  Neither  the  charter  of  the  State  Bank, 
or  any  bank  hitherto  existing  was  to  be  revived  though  new 
banks  could  be  established  by  the  sanction  of  a  popular  refer- 
endum. 

The  cry  for  economy  did  not,  however,  prevent  the  taking 
of  an  important  stand  on  state  indebtedness;  the  fund  arising 
from  a  two  mill  tax  was  to  be  devoted  exclusively  to  debts  other 
than  school  and  canal  indebtedness;  advocates  of  repudiation 
were  thus  rendered  entirely  powerless. 

The  council  of  revision  with  its  unwholesome  effect  on 
legislation  was  lopped  off,  while  the  governor,  his  term  and 
eligibility  remaining  unchanged,  was  invested  with  a  veto  which 
might,  however,  be  overridden  by  the  same  majority  that  origi- 
nally passed  the  bill. 

An  agitation  for  the  granting  of  civil  rights  to  Negroes  met 
so  prompt  and  spirited  an  opposition  that  it  resulted  in  a  fun- 
damental strengthening  of  the  black  code.  An  article  was  in- 
troduced to  "effectually  prohibit  free  persons  of  color  from 
immigrating  to  and  settling  in  this  State;  and  to  effectually 
prevent  the  owners  of  slaves  from  bringing  them  into  this  State 
for  the  purpose  of  setting  them  free."  64 

The  newspaper  campaign  of  judicious  enthusiasm  contin- 
ued throughout  the  winter.  It  was  generally  conceded  that 
"the  new  Constitution  is  not  perfect,  for  it  is  the  work  of 
fallible  men.  Critics  and  hypercritics,  many  good  men,  and 
some  who  might  be  suspected  of  sinister  motives,  may  con- 
demn it;  but  it  is,  on  the  whole,  a  good  Constitution  —  a  repub- 
lican one  —  and  an  immense  improvement  upon  the  old  in- 
strument."63 Such  support  won  the  day;  in  March,  1848, 
the  people  of  the  state  ratified  the  new  constitution  with  the 
large  majority  of  49,060  to  20,883,  and  on  April  i,  1848, 
it  went  into  effect. 

82  Constitution,  1848,  article  XIV. 

•3  Aurora  Beacon,  February  10,  1848. 


XXII.     SOCIAL,  EDUCATIONAL,  AND  RELIGIOUS 
ADVANCE,   1830-1848 

COMPARED  with  the  Illinois  of  1818,  the  Illinois  of 
1848  was  a  community  quickened  into  mental  life  and 
independence.  On  its  accession  to  statehood,  Illinois  was  in- 
tellectually provincial;  its  leaders  came  from  .older  states, 
bringing  with  them  tastes  already  established;  and  mental  cul- 
ture was  the  possession  and  badge  of  a  social  class.  In  1848 
this  was  in  a  measure  still  true ;  but  Illinois  colleges  and  schools 
had  begun  the  work  of  democratizing  education.  Moreover, 
Illinois  numbered  among  its  citizens  men  like  J.  B.  Turner 
and  Thomas  Ford  whose  thought,  keen  and  original,  was 
molded  by  the  environment  the  state  afforded  them.  Eastern- 
ers came  to  quicken  the  life  of  the  state,  and  their  own  intel- 
lectual life  affected  by  the  freedom  of  their  new  surroundings 
ceased  to  be  purely  eastern. 

The  cities  growing  up  in  the  state  were  superimposing 
new  and  more  complex  social  conditions  on  the  older  rural 
communities.1  The  old-time  Fourth  of  July  celebration  con- 
tinued in  vogue  though  sometimes  under  temperance  or  Sun- 
day school  auspices.  As  early  as  1845,  however,  newspapers 
were  descanting  on  the  number  of  accidents  during  such  cele- 
brations and  were  calling  for  -a  sane  Fourth.  Chicago  had 
queens  of  the  May  on  May  day  and  kept  the  old-fashioned 
New  Year's  custom  of  calls  and  refreshments.  There  were 
donation  parties  and  church  fairs.  There  were  traveling  cir- 
cuses to  carry  amusement  to  the  village,  though  these  were 
condemned  by  the  fastidious  as  indecent.  There  was  dancing. 
There  were  theatricals  in  Chicago  and  other  cities,  amateur 
and  professional,  the  latter  becoming  from  the  critic's  point 

1  Chicago  Dally  Journal,  October  9,  1846. 

410 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  411 

of  view,  increasingly  valid.  Among  sports  there  were  horse 
races  which  at  least  in  Chicago  were  sometimes  scenes  of  dis- 
order. Of  course  there  was  hunting,  sometimes  in  the  form 
of  community  wolf  drives.  At  Chicago  there  was  a  boxing 
academy  in  1845.  ^n  ^40  there  was  even  a  cricket  match  be- 
tween Chicago  and  Auplaine.2 

Chicago  was  growing  up;  by  1842  it  recognized  a  need  of 
shade  trees,  deprecated  its  ineffective  system  of  checking  the 
frequent  fires,  and  dilated  on  the  route  northward  it  offered 
southern  travelers.  Moreover,  it  was  acquiring,  as  had  for- 
merly Little  Fort  and  even  forgotten  Salem,  a  reputation  for 
bad  morals;  in  1842  women  of  evil  fame  scandalously  ac- 
cused pious  men  before  grand  juries.  The  advantages  which 
Chicago  offered  as  a  market  for  products  and  the  frequency 
with  which  the  farmer  availed  himself  of  them,  made  it  ap- 
propriate for  the  newspapers  to  offer  advice  concerning  his 
conduct  in  town.  He  must  beware  of  taverns  that  assign  him 
to  garret  rooms  and  set  before  him  shinbone  steak.  He  must 
never  go  to  a  house  merely  because  a  runner  recommends  it. 
He  must  be  sure  on  the  register  to  bracket  his  name  with  that 
of  the  bedfellow  he  chooses  and  to  bespeak  a  room  when  he 
first  enters.3 

Any  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  cultural  life  of  the  state 
must  leave  out  of  account  the  great  circles  of  ignorance  and 
illiteracy;  they  have  passed  leaving  no  record.  For  the  rest, 
the  newspapers  afford  perhaps  the  best  criterion,  although, 
with  the  exception  of  such  a  sheet  as  J.  B.  Turner's  Illinois 
Statesman,  they  fell  below  the  plane  of  the  best  in  the  state. 
It  was  the  papers  which  encouraged  the  lyceums  that  came 

2  Chicago  American,  May  2,  July  8,  September  21,  25,  1840,  December  31, 

1841,  February  i,  April   i,  May  31,  1842;   Chicago  Democrat,  January  3,  1844, 
July  9,  October  28,  1845;  Belleville  Advocate,  August  22,  1840,  May  23,  1841, 
June   n,   18,  July  16,   1846,  April  8,   1847;   Alton   Telegraph,  August  2,   1845; 
Little    Fort    Porcupine,    September    19,    1845,    June    23,    1846;    Chicago    Daily 
Journal,  January  16,  March  3,  1845. 

3  Chicago   American,   December   28,    1840,    February    10,    March    31,    1842, 
February   15,   1847;   Alton    Telegraph,   October   19,    1844;   Illinois  Journal,  No- 
vember n,  1847;  Chicago  Democrat,  September  15,  1841,  June  28,  December  14, 

1842,  June  25,  October  28,  1845;  Little  Fort  Porcupine,  April  30,  May  28,  1845; 
Sangarno  Journal,  May  13,  1847. 


412  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

intermittently  to  the  towns  to  afford  training  in  debate,  to  offer 
lectures  on  science,  literature,  and  phrenology,  and  to  urge  the 
preservation  of  the  history  of  the  state;  as  early  as  1831  a 
state  lyceum  projected  an  elaborate  writing  up  of  the  history 
and  curiosities  of  Illinois.  The  newspapers,  moreover,  for- 
warded this  interest  in  history  directly  by  publishing  in  their 
pages  numerous  discussions  of  past  events,  often  written  by 
men  who  had  participated  in  them.  More  ambitious  was  the 
scheme  of  a  meeting  at  Vandalia  in  1837,  which  deputed  Peck 
to  write  a  complete  history  of  the  state.  Two  years  later  a 
Peoria  Scientific  and  Historical  Society  was  organized,  and  in 
1843  tne  Illinois  Literary  and  Historical  Society  was  at  work. 
The  following  year  the  latter  issued  an  appeal  for  books  and 
manuscripts  calculated  to  throw  light  on  the  history  of  the 
state;  and  three  years  later  it  was  still  working  with  some 
measure  of  success.  Into  these  historical  activities,  it  is  to  be 
marked,  contemporary  politicians  threw  themselves  with  en- 
thusiasm. Sidney  Breese,  William  H.  Brown,  Thomas  Ford, 
and  John  Reynolds  all  have  left  their  interpretation  of  the 
state's  past;  to  an  amazing  degree  they  have  shaped  the  tradi- 
tion of  Illinois  history.4 

Book  advertisements  did  not  indicate  the  existence  of  a 
more  cultivated  literary  taste  than  that  which  the  clippings  in 
newspapers  satisfied.  These  clippings  were  marked  by  an 
affected  romanticism,  though  for  some  reason,  the  democratic 
papers  published  less  sentimental  stuff  than  the  whig;  little 
of  the  "literary"  material,  which  filled  such  papers  as  the 
Sangamo  Journal  and  the  Alton  Telegraph,  even  approached 
good  melodrama  or  romance.  It  was  a  farrago  of  tales  of  the 
American  bourgeoisie :  the  marriages  of  merchants'  daughters 
to  poor  but  virtuous  clerks,  the  connubial  felicities  resulting, 
and  the  final  relenting  of  the  hard-hearted  father  when,  as  was 

4  Belleville  Advocate,  March  25,  1841,  November  3,  1842;  Chicago  American, 
January  7,  1837,  June  26,  July  15,  1839,  December  2,  23,  1841,  February  15,  1842; 
Sangamo  Journal,  April  29,  1837,  November  15,  1839;  Peoria  Register,  Feb- 
ruary 9,  July  6,  1839;  Alton  Telegraph,  September  2,  1843,  August  31,  1844, 
September  3,  1847. 


J 


PECK-MESSENGER  MAP,   1835 

First  sectional  map  of  the  state 

[From  original  owned  by  Wisconsin  Historical  Society] 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  413 

the  usual  denouement,  hard  times  had  swept  away  his  fortune. 
Or,  in  the  time  of  the  excitement  stimulated  by  the  Washing- 
tonians,  one  gets  tragic  sentiment  on  the  woes  of  drunkards' 
wives,  of  starved  children  fading  under  neglect,  and  similar 
tales,  ad  nauseam.  In  these,  however,  democratic  papers  also 
occasionally  indulged.  One  is  hardly  surprised  when  the 
Belleville  Advocate  pronounces  "To  Lucasta  on  Going  to  the 
Wars"  to  be  lacking  in  simplicity  and  fit  only  for  corrupted 
tastes.6 

There  were,  however,  occasional  indications  of  discrimina- 
tion. Now  and  then  there  are  reprints  of  such  tales  as  that 
which  is  the  basis-of  William  Morris'  "  Written  on  the  Image  " 
or  an  imitation  of  Poe's  "  The  Cask  of  Amontillado."  6  Poe's 
"Gold  Bug"  appeared  in  the  Alton  Telegraph  of  August  19, 
1 843,  in  the  midst  of  a  mass  of  sentimental  and  romantic  trash. 
In  the  Chicago  Democrat  of  1845  N.  P.  Willis'  "Letters 
from  London"  are  a  welcome  relief.  The  one  great  excep- 
tion to  a  deprecatory  classification,  however,  is  found  in  the 
enthusiastic  cult  of  Dickens  which  existed  before  his  strictures 
on  America  and  especially  on  Illinois  had  turned  popular  feel- 
ing against  him.7  Wellerisms  were  common  in  the  papers  — 
even  rivaling  the  Negro  joke,  which  playing  on  the  misuse 
of  long  words  was  the  principal  form  of  humor. 

The  attitude  of  the  whig  newspapers  toward  morals  and 
manners  is,  to  say  the  least,  generally  disappointing.  The 
Chicago  American  within  a  few  months  managed  to  comment 
on  the  morals  of  Fanny  Ellsler  and  of  Dionysius  Lardner,  to 
remark  on  the  relative  beauties  of  the  Venus  of  Canova  and 
the  Venus  de  Medici  and  withal  to  comment  much  on  crimes 
of  sex.  Comparing  favorably  with  this  policy  is  the  frank 
broadness  of  several  of  the  democratic  papers  whose  stories 
represented  the  naivete  of  rural  Illinois.8 

5  April  25,  1840. 

0  Belleville  Advocate,  April  17,  1841. 

7  Chicago  American,  November  23,  1841,  January  19,  1842;  Belleville  Advo- 
cate, April  ii,  21,  November  29,  December  22,  1842. 

8  Chicago  American,  December  2,  1841,  June  4,  1842;  Belleville  Advocate, 
September  30,  1847. 


4i4  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

The  medical  profession  showed  evidence  of  a  growing 
social  consciousness  in  the  change  from  early  individual  efforts 
at  medicine  and  hygiene  to  the  organization  in  the  thirties  of 
medical  societies  and  sodalities.9  In  1837  Rush  Medical  Col- 
lege was  incorporated  —  at  that  time  no  such  institution  was 
to  be  found  west  of  Cincinnati  and  Lexington.10  The  trustees 
did  not,  however,  effect  an  organization  until  1843  when  the 
first  course  of  lectures  was  given  by  four  instructors  to  twenty- 
two  students;  the  following  year  the  first  college  building  was 
erected.  In  1846  a  medical  library  of  six  hundred  volumes 
and  improved  apparatus  for  study  were  added  for  students 
and  a  free  dispensary  and  operating  clinic  opened  to  the  public. 
By  1848  the  school  enrolled  one  hundred  and  forty  students, 
and  that  year  graduated  thirty-three  physicians. 

The  faculty  of  the  institution  not  only  contributed  their 
services  but  kept  up  all  expenses  of  maintenance  and  alter- 
ation of  the  college,  the  only  donation  either  to  its  establish- 
ment or  support  being  the  lot  upon  which  the  college  was  orig- 
inally erected.  To  Dr.  Daniel  Brainard  is  due  chief  credit 
for  the  founding  and  directing  in  its  early  years  of  this  first 
institution  of  science,  which  made  Chicago  a  recognized  center 
of  medical  instruction.11 

The  life  of  the  people  of  the  early  state  found  its  most  typ- 
ical expression  in  their  churches.  They  offered  an  immediate 
escape  from  the  unending  struggle  with  physical  forces,  a 
promise  of  future  compensation  for  the  privations  that  now 
pressed  hard,  and  furnished  a  social  center  of  varied  and 
exciting  interest. 

For  the  religious  denominations  already  strongly  estab- 
lished in  Illinois,  the  period  from  1830  to  1848  was  one  of 
more  or  less  steady  growth.  The  Methodists,  who  in  1830 
numbered  about  six  thousand  communicants,  were  just  enter- 
ing on  a  decade  of  tremendous  growth;  in  the  next  five  years 

9  The  first  meeting  of  the  Cook  County  Medical  Society  was  on  October  3, 
1836. 

10  Chicago  American,  March  25,  1837. 

11  Andreas,  History  of  Chicago,  464-466. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  415 

they  increased  to  fifteen  thousand,  and  that  number  was  dou- 
bled by  1840.  The  growth  of  the  next  eight  years,  while  not 
so  remarkable,  was  still  sufficient  to  insure  this  denomination 
with  over  forty  thousand  members  first  place  in  numerical 
strength.12 

The  Baptists  had  grown  from  thirty-six  hundred  to  twelve 
thousand  in  the  decade  between  1830  and  1840;  in  the  follow- 
ing ten  years,  increasing  absolutely  as  much  as  the  Methodists 
during  the  same  time,  they  almost  doubled  their  membership 
with  twenty-two  thousand  communicants  in  1850.  Their  annals 
throughout  this  period,  however,  had  not  been  peaceful.  The 
"  anti-mission  "  Baptists,  later  confused  with  the  "  two  seed  " 
Baptists,  strove  against  John  Mason  Peck  and  the  supporters 
of  the  "religious  institutions  falsely  so-called"  which  taught 
young  men  to  preach  and  sent  them  forth  under  perpetual  pay 
to  displace  the  old  Baptist  preachers;  their  associations  dis- 
fellowshipped  those  who  had  to  do  with  missions. 

In  spite  of  opposition  the  main  currents  of  opinion  ran  in 
the  channels  in  which  Peck  would  have  had  them,  and  the 
aid  of  the  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  in  sustaining  the  min- 
istry in  the  state  was  gratefully  acknowledged  by  the  Edwards- 
ville  association  in  1836.  That  same  year  saw  the  formation 
of  the  Illinois  Baptist  Education  Society  designed  to  aid  candi- 
dates for  the  ministry.  Peck  in  defending  the  movement  argued 
that  the  educated  minister  would  not  drive  out  the  old  illiterate 
preacher  simply  because  of  his  illiteracy.  If  he  was  so  narrow 
as  to  stand  in  the  way  of  others,  he  deserved  it;  but  a  minister 
hearty  in  the  cause  would  find  .no  one  inclined  to  take  notice 
of  slips  in  grammar. 

The  Illinois  Baptist  Convention,  in  connection  with  the 
Home  Mission  Society,  had  their  traveling  missionaries  wholly 
or  partly  supported  in  the  work  of  building  up  churches.  Be- 
tween April,  1836,  and  January,  1837,  Moses  Lemen  traveled 
a  distance  of  2,100  miles,  visited  fourteen  churches,  and  gave 

12  Minutes  of  the  Annual  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
2:46;  3:90,  99,  297,  399,  513;  4:79,  261,  281. 


4i6  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

one  hundred  and  five  religious  discourses.  In  a  similar  period 
of  time  his  brother  James  had  traveled  1,595  miles  and 
preached  ninety-six  sermons.  In  1837  the  Illinois  Baptist 
Convention  agreed  to  assume  one-third  the  expense  of  the  Bap- 
tist missionaries.  The  indefatigable  Peck  was  appointed 
general  agent  to  visit  the  churches,  to  stir  them  to  renewed 
activity,  to  seek  out  students,  and  to  look  after  the  interests  of 
Shurtleff  College  and  of  the  societies.  Already  for  some  years 
he  had  edited  the  Western  Pioneer,  a  Baptist  paper;  and  he 
was  now  urged  to  prepare  sketches  of  religious  history  in  the 
west.  A  Baptist  leader  such  as  Peck  had  to  be  a  man  of  tact; 
not  only  was  his  attitude  toward  slavery  under  scrutiny  but 
a  sharp  lookout  had  to  be  kept  lest  such  matters  as  the  informal 
shedding  of  a  heavy  coat  in  warm  weather  should  offend  the 
sensibilities  of  a  visiting  eastern  brother.13 

The  slavery  crisis  of  1845,  resulting  from  the  refusal  of 
the  Baptist  board  to  allow  slaveholding  missionaries,  ended 
in  the  promotion  of  an  independent  Northwest  Baptist  Asso- 
ciation including  northern  Illinois  and  finally  in  its  dissolution 
and  the  promotion  of  an  entirely  new  Baptist  central  body,  the 
Baptist  General  Association  of  Illinois.  The  Western  Chris- 
tian was  the  supporter  of  the  new  body  in  contradistinction  to 
the  Helmet  which  was  inclined  in  the  slavery  direction.14 

The  most  significant  event  in  the  religious  history  of  the 
period  1830—1840  is  the  rise  of  Presbyterianism  and  Congre- 
gationalism in  Illinois.  The  two  denominations  working  to- 
gether in  the  west  under  the  plan  of  union  undertook,  in  the 
belief  that  Congregationalism  of  the  Yankee  type  was  exotic 
in  the  latitude  of  Illinois,  to  win  the  state  to  a  modified  Pres- 
byterianism. Eventually,  however,  the  compromise  was  de- 
nounced on  the  one  hand  by  Presbyterians  who  claimed  that 
Congregational  influence  was  demoralizing  the  discipline  of 

18  Hicks,  Outline  of  Baptist  History,  n;  Illinois  Advocate,  December  9, 
1831;  Western  Pioneer,  June  30,  September  2,  November  25,  December  16,  1836, 
March  29,  April  14,  May  5,  September  22,  October  27,  1837,  February  9,  1838. 

**  Western  Christian,  June  14,  28,  October  23,  November  6,  13,  1845; 
Baptist  Helmet,  April  24,  May  22,  1845. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  417 

the  church,  and  on  the  other  by  Congregationalists  who  claimed 
that  Congregational  brains  and  money  had  been  used  by  Pres- 
byterians to  establish  themselves  in  the  west.  In  the  annals 
of  the  two  denominations  the  same  men  and  enterprises  are 
described  as  Congregational  or  Presbyterian  according  to  the 
writer's  point  of  view,  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  the  real  truth. 

Illinois  Presbyterianism  which  in  1830  had  but  four  hun- 
dred and  ninety-two  members  established  in  the  one  "  Presby- 
tery of  the  Centre  of  Illinois  "  had  expanded  to  twenty-three 
hundred  communicants  in  eight  presbyteries  by  the  end  of  the 
decade,  and  had  with  eleven  presbyteries  and  two  synods  more 
than  doubled  their  numerical  strength  by  i848.15  Through- 
out this  period,  however,  their  chief  energy  was  devoted  to 
educational  and  mission  society  effort;  the  supporters  of  the 
movement  had  to  be  on  the  alert  lest  they  arouse  western 
pride  by  a  too  frank  declaration  of  their  belief  that  the  west 
was  a  moral  desert16  The  Reverend  John  Milcot  Ellis,  when 
soliciting  money  for  Illinois  College,  was  embarrassed  by  the 
charge  of  having  acquiesced  in  such  malignant  eastern  state- 
ments. As  a  fitting  retaliation  to  former  aspersions,  in  1833 
the  Alton  Spectator  called  on  the  citizens  to  meet  "  in  the 
splendid  Cong.  ch.  soon  to  be  built "  to  consider  means  of  sav- 
ing the  east  from  its  moral  degradation. 

Jealous  opposition  met  the  sedulous  Presbyterian  activities. 
In  1834  Peter  Cartwright,  on  behalf  of  the  Methodist  preach- 
ers who  had  borne  the  heat  of  the  pioneer  day,  testified  against 
non-sectarian  societies  on  the  ground  that  they  were  controlled 
by  "new  school"  presbyteries  and  that  they  paid  money  to 
agents  who  really  worked  for  their  own  denominations  and 
against  the  Methodists,  breaking  up  Methodist  Sunday 
schools  and  establishing  their  own.  Had  not  an  agent,  lately 
sent  east  to  procure  some  thousands  for  Illinois  College,  said: 
"  give  me  this  sum  and  the  Mississippi  Valley  is  ours?" 

Illinois  Presbyterianism  felt  the  effects  of  the  split  of  1837 

15  Minutes  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian   Church,  1830,  p. 
116-117;  1840,  p.  58;  1849,  P-  273- 

16  Illinois  Intelligencer,  January  23,  1830. 


4i8  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

between  the  new  and  old  school.  In  the  national  general  as- 
sembly of  1837,  the  old  school  forces  —  gaining  control,  their 
opponents  declared,  by  a  bargain  with  the  south  on  the  subject 
of  slavery  —  abrogated  the  plan  of  union  of  1801;  they  cut 
off  from  the  churches  all  synods  believed  to  be  tainted  with 
lax  discipline  and  new  school,  or  "  New  Haven,"  theology  which 
was  regarded  as  not  quite  severe  enough  in  its  phrasing  of  the 
predestination  doctrine ;  they  denounced  the  activity  of  non- 
sectarian  boards  and  established  for  their  denomination  its 
own  particular  missionary  societies.  Their  act  was  interpreted 
rightly  as  the  earnest  of  their  determination  to  drive  the  new 
school  element  out  of  the  church. 

At  this  time  it  is  possible  to  strike  the  balance  with  some 
fairness  between  the  parties.  Ostensibly  at  least  the  old  school 
forces  had  certain  grievances  that  may  justify  their  course.17 
They  were  convinced  that  the  union  had  brought  into  the 
church  Congregationalists  who  were  not  only  lax  in  doctrine 
but  also  disinclined  to  take  seriously  the  exact  and  elaborate 
organization  of  their  church.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the 
essence  of  Presbyterianism  is  discipline;  and  the  old  school 
men,  while  the  violence  of  their  proceedings  may  be  condemned, 
may  be  forgiven  for  thinking  that  without  the  full  discipline 
Presbyterianism  would  not  be  Presbyterianism. 

As  might  be  inferred  the  split  had  a  peculiar  effect  in  Illi- 
nois, because  there  the  new  school  forces  had  nourished  Pres- 
byterianism. Thus  the  synod  of  Illinois  in  1836  had  denounced 
ministers  who  bought  or  sold  slaves  or  approved  such  actions. 
The  synod  by  a  small  vote  refused  to  condemn  the  abolitionist 
doctrine,  that  all  slaveholding  is  sin;  instead,  it  merely  declared 
immediate  emancipation  inexpedient  and  prescribed  a  sermon 
on  slavery  at  each  annual  meeting.  This  policy  satisfied  even 
Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  not  yet  an  abolitionist.  In  April  of  1837 
the  Alton  presbytery  appointed  a  committee  to  draft  a  memo- 

17  For  an  account  of  the  assembly  from  an  Illinois  new  school  source,  see 
Alton  Observer,  June  8,  15,  22,  29,  July  6,  20,  1837.  Lovejoy  believed  that 
slavery  was  at  the  bottom  of  it,  Princeton  catering  to  the  south,  which  formerly 
had  been  new  school.  Ibid.,  June  29,  1837;  Peoria  Register,  July  i,  1837. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  419 

rial  to  the  synod  against  receiving  into  communion  persons 
from  the  south  who  had  sold  their  slaves  instead  of  freeing 
them.  In  the  convention  of  old  school  men  which  preceded 
the  general  assembly  of  1837  there  were  many  complaints  of 
Illinois  Presbyterianism.  Ministers  in  the  Schuyler  presbytery 
denied  with  impunity  the  doctrine  of  imputation;  the  Alton 
Observer  denied  that  all  sinned  and  fell  in  Adam ;  three-fourths 
of  the  ministers  were  said  to  be  New  Haven  men,  brought  in 
by  the  Home  Missionary  Society.  Worst  of  all  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  a  professor  of  Illinois  College,  had  said  "What 
New  Haven  is  in  Connecticut  I  would  make  Jacksonville  in 
Illinois."  The  general  assembly  of  the  church  enjoined  the 
Illinois  synod  to  purge  itself  from  errors  in  church  order 
and  doctrine.  When  the  Illinois  synod  met  in  1838  there 
seceded  from  it  all  the  delegates  from  the  Kaskaskia  presby- 
tery, three  out  of  four  ministers  and  one  out  of  four  elders 
from  Sangamon;  five  ministers  out  of  fifteen  and  seven  elders 
out  of  fourteen  from  Schuyler,  and  one  elder  from  Peoria. 
Those  who  remained  condemned  in  a  resolution  the  action  of 
the  general  assembly  and  declared  it  the  duty  of  ministers  to 
preach  against  slavery  as  counter  to  the  law  of  God.  The 
year  before  there  had  been  several  appeals  to  the  new  school 
Presbyterians  to  organize  before  they  were  borne  down  by  the 
old  school  power.  A  loose  synodical  organization  was  sug- 
gested in  which  they  could  continue  to  cooperate  with  New 
England  associations  and  with  the  Congregationalists.18 

Congregationalism  in  Illinois  as  an  organization  began 
in  1833.  Up  to  that  time  the  communion  of  Congregational 
churches  through  the  arrangement  with  the  Presbyterians  con- 
tributed money,  brains,  labor,  and  members  to  the  establish- 
ment of  another  denomination  and  had  continued  to  do  so  even 
after  it  was  realized  that  the  arrangement  was  having  such 
an  unequal  result.  Presbyterian  churches  had  been  founded, 
sustained  by  Congregationalists  in  New  England,  and  made 

18  Alton  Observer,  October  27,  December  15,  1836,  April  20,  June  8,  July  6, 
13,  27,  1837,  April  19,  1838;  Peoria  Register,  October  27,  1838. 


420  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

up  in  Illinois  largely  of  emigrated  New  England  Congrega- 
tionalists.  In  that  year,  however,  the  first  three  Congregational 
churches  were  established,  and  by  1835  seven  more  had  been 
added.  In  1836  the  first  meeting  of  the  Illinois  Congrega- 
tional Association  was  held,  churches  at  Jacksonville,  Quincy, 
Fairfield,  Pond  Prairie,  St.  Mary,  Griggsville,  and  Long 
Grove  being  represented.19  A  general  association  was  founded 
in  1844  with  two  local  associations  embracing  sixty-four 
churches,  forty-eight  ministers,  and  2,432  members. 

The  pioneering  Congregational  missionaries  were  usually 
men  of  thorough  collegiate  and  theological  training  and  were 
of  indomitable  energy  though  they  showed  varied  talents 
and  adaptation  for  pioneer  work.  The  Reverend  Nathaniel 
C.  Clark,  for  example,  founded  the  first  Congregational  church 
in  northern  Illinois  —  that  near  Naperville  —  in  1833  and 
afterwards  organized  thirty-seven  churches  in  the  Fox  river 
valley. 

A  great  part  of  their  energy,  however,  was  given  to  the 
planting  and  nourishing  of  educational  institutions.  Here 
again  it  was  not  only  their  own  denominational  schools  that  were 
aided,  but  the  heartiest  cooperation  was  extended  to  others. 
Illinois,  Knox,  and  Beloit  colleges,  Whipple,  Dover,  Prince- 
ton, and  other  academies,  Monticello,  Jacksonville,  Rockford, 
and  Galesburg  female  seminaries  were  all  the  fruit  of  their 
inspiration,  planning,  or  labor.  Nearly  every  one  of  the 
founders,  presidents,  and  early  professors  of  Illinois  colleges, 
nominally  Presbyterian,  were  Congregational  ministers. 

From  the  beginning  Congregationalists  were  inflexibly 
opposed  to  slavery.  The  state  association  in  1844  made  a 
standing  rule  to  which  its  members  must  assent:  "No  one 
shall  be  admitted  to  membership  in  this  body  who  does  not 
regard  slaveholding  as  a  sin  condemned  by  God."  For  this 

19  In  1833  the  first  Presbyterian  church  of  Chicago  was  founded,  made  up  of 
New  England  Congregationalists:  "  In  fact,  Philo  Carpenter  is  said  to  have  been 
the  only  one  .  .  .  who  had  always  been  a  Presbyterian."  Moses  and  Kirk- 
land,  History  of  Chicago,  331,  375.  There  was  no  Congregational  church  in 
Chicago  until  1851.  See  also  Alton  Observer,  January  26,  1837,  March  22,  1838. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  421 

united  and  outspoken  stand,  and  for  the  equally  bold  advocacy 
of  temperance  reform,  Congregationalists  for  a  long  time 
aroused  the  abhorrence  of  conventional  religionists.20 

One  of  the  most  interesting  religious  developments  of 
the  period  was  that  of  the  Christians  or  Disciples  of  Christ. 
They  had  a  few  scattered  churches  before  1830,  but  it  was 
that  decade  which  saw  the  organization  of  many  churches, 
particularly  in  the  southern  and  central  parts  of  the  state. 
Settlers  from  Kentucky,  Ohio,  and  West  Virginia,  already 
imbued  with  the  western  spirit,  found  in  this  movement  for 
the  restoration  of  apostolic  Christianity  a  religion  most  suited 
to  their  needs.  The  freedom  and  simplicity  of  a  church  that 
refused  to  be  limited  by  human  creeds,  that  admitted  to  mem- 
bership all  who,  after  a  scriptural  confession  of  faith,  were 
baptized  by  immersion  was  too  inherently  western  not  to  make 
a  strong  appeal  to  the  hardy,  independent  spirits  of  a  develop- 
ing frontier.  The  fact  that  they  as  a  body  incurred  the  most 
spirited  and  bitter  antagonism  from  other  established  denom- 
inations21 could  not  prevail  over  the  warmth,  good  fellow- 
ship, and  simplicity  of  their  religion;  by  1840  they  had  sixty 
churches,  twenty-seven  ministers,  and  four  thousand  members; 
the  next  ten  years  they  more  than  doubled  their  strength  having 
in  1850  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  churches,  sixty  ministers, 
and  ten  thousand  communicants.22 

In  1834  three  Episcopal  churches  were  organized  in  Illi- 
nois; and  a  year  later  the  first  annual  convention  of  this  body 
was  held,  seven  ministers  being  present.  By  1845  there  were 

20  Savage,  Pioneer  Congregational  Ministers  in  Illinois,  passim, 

21  Sturtevant,  Autobiography,  246,  gives  the  following  striking  example  of 
the  attitude  toward  this  body   in   their  early   history.     He  had  been   asked  to 
preach    to    a    congregation    of    Disciples    and    at    its    close   he    said:    "I    could 
say  with  Peter,  '  I  perceive  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons.'     God  taught  me 
that  day  to  beware  how  I  called  any  body  of  professed  Christians  '  common  or 
unclean.' 

"  The  report  of  my  doings  in  that  Sabbath  startled  the  community,  the  story 
could  not  have  been  circulated  with  greater  rapidity  or  repeated  with  more 
emphasis  had  I  committed  an  infamous  crime.-  A  few  defended  my  action,  but 
most  of  my  good  neighbors  were  shocked." 

22  Thrapp,  "  Early  Religious  Beginnings  in  Illinois,"  in  Illinois  State  His- 
torical Society,  Journal,  4:311;    Moses,  Illinois,  1077. 


422  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

twenty-five  clergymen  in  twenty-eight  parishes,  with  over  five 
hundred  members;  by  1848  the  number  of  communicants  had 
grown  to  over  a  thousand.23  The  interest  in  the  denomina- 
tion centers  around  the  figure  of  the  missionary  bishop,  Phi- 
lander Chase,  who  came  to  Illinois  in  1833.  One  knows  more 
about  Chase  than  about  most  men  in  Illinois  of  that  day 
because  he  was  continually  breaking  into  print  with  pamphlets 
appealing  for  support  for  his  pet,  Jubilee  College,  or  protest- 
ing against  attacks  on  the  college  or  on  himself.  His  attempts 
to  be  discreet  on  the  question  of  slavery  brought  him  wordy 
wars  with  the  abolitionists. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  statehood  Illinois  comprised  a  part  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  diocese  of  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  though 
it  was  administered  by  Bishop  Joseph  Rosati  at  St.  Louis,  who 
acted  as  vicar-general.23*  During  this  time  there  were  a  few 
scattered  congregations,  mostly  French,  in  southern  Illinois; 
in  1826  there  were,  according  to  Bishop  Rosati's  report,  twenty 
missions,  whose  needs  were  supplied  by  missionaries  sent  out 
from  St.  Louis.  But  beginning  slowly  in  the  thirties  and  in- 
creasing rapidly  in  the  forties  came  that  tide  of  Catholic  immi- 
grants, predominantly  Irish  and  German,  who,  settling  in  great 
numbers  in  the  northern  section  of  the  country,  shifted  ecclesias- 
tical emphasis  to  the  north  and  made  Catholicism  an  important 
factor  in  state  development. 

When  Chicago  was  incorporated  in  1833  the  Catholics 
there  numbered  130,  or  ninety  per  cent  of  the  population;  they 
were  largely  French,  or  French  and  Indian  —  the  latter  includ- 
ing the  half-breed  Potawatomi  chiefs,  Billy  Caldwell  and  Alex- 
ander Robinson.23b  In  April  of  1833  these  Catholics  sent  a 

23  Alton  Telegraph,  July  26,  1845;  Journal  of  Annual  Conventions  of  Epis- 
copalian Church  of  Illinois,  1843-1857. 

23a  For  the  great  part  of  the  material  here  used  on  the  Catholics  of  Illinois 
I  am  indebted  to  the  proof  of  Gilbert  J.  Garraghan's  article,  "  Early  Catholicity 
in  Chicago,  1673-1843,"  which  is  to  appear  in  the  Illinois  Catholic  Historical 
Journal,  volume  i,  number  i. 

23b  These  were  the  chiefs  so  widely  and  favorably  known  as  friends  of  the 
whites;  it  was  their  influence  which  saved  the  Kinzies  and  others  from  the  fury 
of  the  Indians  when  the  former  arrived  on  the  scene  the  day  following  the  Fort 
Dearborn  massacre;  both  were  later  instrumental  in  preventing  the  Potawatomi 
from  participation  in  the  Winnebago  and  Black  Hawk  wars. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  423 

petition  for  a  resident  pastor  to  Bishop  Rosati,  who,  less  than 
a  month  later,  was  able  to  comply  with  their  request  in  the  per- 
son of  a  zealous  and  intelligent  young  French  priest,  Irenaeus 
Mary  St.  Cyr.  He  at  once  began  his  duties,  saying  mass  in  a 
laborer's  cabin  given  him  by  the  hotel  keeper  Mark  Beaubien, 
until  the  first  Catholic  church  of  Chicago  could  be  erected. 
This,  a  small,  unplastered,  unpainted  chapel,  on  the  south  side 
of  Lake  street,  was  completed  in  October,  1 833  ;  and  the  follow- 
ing day  the  first  mass  was  said  in  St.  Mary's  to  a  visiting  band 
of  three  hundred  Indians. 

Father  St.  Cyr  ministered  to  Indians,  French,  Canadians, 
Germans,  Irish,  and  Americans,  who,  notwithstanding  the 
priest's  poor  English,  did  u  not  fail  to  come  in  crowds  to  our 
church  every  Sunday."230  In  the  spring  of  1835  there  was  a 
Catholic  population  of  four  hundred  in  Chicago,  and  Catholics 
were  thickening  throughout  the  state.  Galena  had  a  resident 
pastor,  Father  McMahon,  in  1833,  and  at  his  death  Father 
Charles  Fitzmaurice,  a  native  of  Ireland,  was  sent  out  from  St. 
Louis  as  his  successor.  Missions  were  established  at  Bour- 
bonnais  Grove,  Joliet,  in  Lake  and  LaSalle  counties;  in  the 
central  part  of  the  state,  Father  Van  Quickenborne  was,  in 
1832,  ministering  to  Springfield  and  other  localities  in  Sanga- 
mon  county;  while  Catholics  near  Peoria  and  Quincy  were  need- 
ing pastors.  To  meet  these  fast  changing  conditions  Rome, 
when  erecting  the  see  of  Vincennes  in  1834,  divided  the  state 
longitudinally;  the  western  half,  according  to  a  suggestion  of 
Bishop  Rosati,  was  attached  "not  only  de  facto  but  de  jure" 
to  the  see  of  St.  Louis,  while  the  eastern  half,  including  Chi- 
cago,23*1 became  a  part  of  the  see  of  Vincennes  under  Bishop 

23c  In  1836  Father  Bernard  Schaeffer,  a  native  of  Strassburg  in  Alsace,  ar- 
rived in  Chicago  to  care  for  the  German  speaking  Catholics;  at  his  death  the 
following  year  he  was  succeeded  by  Father  Francis  Fischer.  Father  St.  Cyr 
was  removed  to  Quincy  in  the  spring  of  1837,  anc^  tnat  summer  Father  Bernard 
O'Meara  succeeded  to  the  pastorate  of  St.  Mary's.  Father  Maurice  St.  Palais, 
the  future  Bishop  of  Vincennes,  came  to  Chicago  in  1838  [  ?]  ;  at  the  coming  of 
Bishop  Quarter  in  May,  1844,  Fathers  Fischer  and  St.  Palais  were  the  only  priests 
in  the  city  —  as  was  the  enlarged  St.  Mary's  the  only  church,  the  new  church  of 
brick  begun  by  Father  St.  Palais  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Wabash  avenue  and 
Madison  street  being  then  unfinished. 

23d  By   Special   arrangement   Chicago,   in   the   pastorate  of   Father    St.   Cyr, 


424  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

Simon  Gabriel  Brute;  such  remained  the  status  of  Illinois  dur- 
ing the  next  nine  years  of  tremendous  expansion  and  growth. 
A  petition  from  Chicago  Catholics  in  1837  states  that  "we 
have  in  this  town  two  thousand  and  perhaps  more  Catholics  as 
there  are  a  large  number  of  Catholic  families  in  the  adjacent 
country  particularly  on  the  line  of  the  Chicago  and  Illinois 
canal.  .  .  ."  The  Catholic  population  continued  to  grow 
with  the  city,  until  on  November  28,  1843,  tne  diocese  of  Chi- 
cago, consolidating  the  entire  state  of  Illinois,  was  canonically 
established  by  Pope  Gregory  XVI.  The  following  spring  the 
Right  Reverend  William  Quarter,  a  native  of  Ireland,  arrived 
in  Chicago  as  its  first  bishop.  During  his  service  of  four  years, 
he  founded  the  University  of  St.  Mary's  of  the  Lake,  built 
thirty  churches,  ordained  twenty-nine  priests,  and  left  forty 
clergymen  and  twenty  ecclesiastical  students  in  the  diocese. 

The  influx  of  German  and  Scandinavian  immigration  in 
the  forties  brought  many  Lutherans  into  the  state.  In  1846 
the  first  German  Lutheran  church  was  founded  in  Chicago; 
in  1847  the  Norwegian  Lutherans  there  organized  themselves 
into  a  church.  The  first  meeting  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
synod  of  Illinois  was  called  at  Hillsboro,  October,  1846,  and 
reported  seven  ministers,  fifteen  congregations  and  six  hundred 
and  eighty-five  communicants.  The  Illinois  synod,  German,  was 
organized  in  1848,  and  with  the  steady  increase  of  German 
and  Scandinavian  immigration  the  Lutheran  church  grew  with 
great  rapidity.24 

The  work  of  Bible  societies,  Sunday  school  societies,  and 
similar  institutions  in  Illinois  was  actively  continued.  In  1836 
the  Illinois  Bible  Society  employed  a  general  agent  who  the  fol- 
lowing year  reported  that  in  forty-seven  out  of  seventy-one 
counties  one  or  more  Bible  societies  had  been  established.  He 

remained  for  a  year  longer  under  Bishop  Rosati  at  St.  Louis.  In  the  preceding 
year  it  would  appear  that  Chicago  was  in  the  see  of  Detroit,  the  original  south- 
ern line  of  that  diocese,  as  erected  in  1833,  having  run  from  the  Maumee  west 
to  the  Mississippi. 

24  Moses  and  Kirkland,  History  of  Chicago,  356,  358;  Moses,  Illinois,  1075; 
Neve,  Brief  History  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America,  93. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  425 

estimated  that  two-thirds  of  the  Bibles  in  the  state  were  there 
as  a  result  of  the  societies'  operations.  Like  the  Bible  society 
the  Sunday  school  union  was  an  interdenominational  affair 
with  the  support  of  at  least  the  more  liberal  members  of  the 
various  Protestant  denominations.  Such  men  as  Kinney  and 
Cartwright,  believing  that  the  movement  was  designed  by  the 
hated  Yankees  to  civilize  the  valley,  felt  a  natural  jealousy 
that  held  them  aloof  from  the  enterprise.  Indeed  local  utter- 
ances indorsing  such  a  design  were  not  wanting  on  the  part 
of  the  American  Sunday  School  Union,  whose  agents  from  this 
time  were  active  in  the  state.  The  underlying  purpose  of  the 
movement  was  variously  defined;  sometimes,  in  default  of 
ordinary  schools,  to  afford  education  that  might  train  for 
intelligent  citizenship;  sometimes,  to  prepare  the  young  for 
church  membership.  One  of  the  reports  for  1836  made  by  the 
three  organizing  agents  of  the  Illinois  Sunday  School  Union 
was  rather  diverting;  among  other  things  it  was  stated  that 
there  was  no  Sunday  school  in  Johnson  county,  and  it  was  not 
possible  to  establish  any;  in  one  place  only  two  families  wanted 
one,  since  the  experience  with  a  singing  school  which  had  bro- 
ken up  in  a  stabbing  row  had  rendered  the  inhabitants  fearful 
of  any  further  educational  projects.  In  general  a  slowly  wan- 
ing opposition  to  Sunday  schools,  especially  on  the  part  of 
the  Baptists  was  reported,  as  was  also  the  fact  that  no  more 
day  schools  than  Sunday  schools  existed.  Multitudes  of  young 
men  were  growing  up  unable  to  read,  and  the  state  was  slow 
in  supplying  the  greatly  needed  schools.25 

The  general  effect  of  religious  propaganda  in  the  state 
can  be  set  down  as  nothing  but  good.  It  is  true  there  were 
occasional  complaints  of  lukewarmness  or  hypocrisy  on  the 
part  of  the  church  members,  complaints  that  people  went  to 
church  to  show  fine  clothing  or  to  indulge  the  newfangled  habit 
of  munching  candy  in  church.  Sabbath  breaking  persisted, 

25  Alton  Observer,  December  8,  1836,  April  20,  1837;  Western  Pioneer,  June 
30,  July  22,  August  5,  1836,  December  8,  1837;  Illinois  Intelligencer,  July  3, 
August  21,  September  18,  1830,  February  26,  April  2,  1831;  Galena  Advertiser, 
April  26,  1830. 


426  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

the  old  habits  of  carrying  produce  to  market  and  starting  a 
journey  on  Sunday  continuing  as  before.  This  disregard  of  the 
Sabbath  was  constantly  noticed  by  visitors  from  the  east.  In 
1847  a  convention  was  held  at  Belleville  to  promote  better 
Sunday  observance.  There  were  the  old  complaints  that  the 
people  who  in  the  east  professed  religion  became  irreligious 
in  the  west.  In  1838,  however,  the  Peoria  Register  affirmed 
that  not  a  settler  in  the  Military  Tract  but  was  within  ten  or 
twelve  miles  of  divine  service  on  Sunday.26 

In  the  cause  of  temperance  during  the  early  thirties  there 
were  occasional  bursts  of  activity  throughout  Illinois,  notably 
at  Alton.  In  1836  a  state  temperance  agent  was  appointed, 
and  in  the  fall  of  that  year  the  Illinois  State  Temperance  Soci- 
ety celebrated  its  third  anniversary  at  Alton.  Timothy 
Turner,  its  agent,  reported  the  organization  of  fifteen  societies 
and  the  taking  of  twenty-five  hundred  pledges  as  a  result  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  addresses  in  thirty-three  counties.  By 
the  end  of  1837  there  were  two  hundred  and  fifty  local  societies 
in  the  state.27 

Prohibitory  legislation  followed  in  the  wake  of  organiza- 
tion. In  1838  Alton  prohibited  the  selling  of  spirituous  liquors 
producing  thereby  much  excited  language.  At  Peoria  the 
question  was  brought  up  coupled  with  the  direction  of  attention 
to  the  number  of  "  doggeries  "  kept  by  aliens  and  with  a  sug- 
gested appeal  to  the  state  legislature  to  prohibit  retailing  of 
spirituous  liquor  in  Illinois.  In  January  there  were  petitions 
for  and  against  the  granting  of  liquor  licenses  in  the  town. 
In  Henry  county  it  was  said  no  license  had  ever  been  granted. 
In  1837,  owing  to  the  refusal  of  the  county  commissioners  to 
license,  there  was  not  a  grocery  in  the  county  of  Wabash. 

28  Illinois  State  Register,  July  9,  1841;  Chicago  American,  September  26, 
1839;  Alton  Telegraph,  June  n,  1847;  Western  Citizen,  April  18,  1844;  Baptist 
Helmet,  April  24,  1835;  Belleville  Advocate,  April  29,  1847;  Western  Pioneer, 
April  7,  1837,  February  18,  1845;  Peoria  Register,  September  i,  1838. 

27  Illinois  Intelligencer,  October  29,  1831;  Alton  Telegraph,  September  26, 
1833,  March  16,  1836;  Alton  American,  January  3,  1834;  Alton  Spectator,  Janu- 
ary 4,  1834;  Alton  Observer,  December  8,  1836;  Chicago  Democrat,  February  4, 
1834;  Western  Pioneer,  December  8,  1837. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  427 

Monmouth  was  a  dry  town  in  1839,  and  Peoria,  Knoxville,  and 
Oquawka  all  had  temperance  hotels.28 

The  difficulty  in  dealing  with  the  problems  was  the  all 
pervasive  character  of  the  traffic.  It  wound  itself  into  almost 
every  phase  of  life.  The  bargain  or  the  store  trade  was  not 
complete  without  the  glass  of  whisky;  it  was  a  political  expedi- 
ent used  on  every  hand.  Drinking,  and  hard  drinking,  was 
everywhere  prevalent.  Men  delighted  to  number  and  classify 
in  routine  the  various  potations  of  a  day  and  to  give  each 
its  own  name  —  eye  opener,  phlegm  cutter,  stomach  cleaner, 
fogmatic,  anti-fogmatic  and  so  on.29  To  wean  men  from  so 
constant  an  attendant  as  John  Barleycorn  more  was  required 
than  legislation  or  temperance  organizations  of  the  old  type. 

The  Washingtonian  movement  took  root  in  Illinois  toward 
the  end  of  1841  and  gave  a  completely  different  trend  to  the 
temperance  propaganda  in  the  state.  It  differed  from  the 
earlier  temperance  agitation  in  that  the  latter  was  closely 
guided  by  ministers  and  paid  agents,  suspected  of  fanaticism, 
and  that  it  was  designed  to  save  the  temperate  man  \vhile 
leaving  the  drunkard  to  his  fate.  The  Washingtonian  move- 
ment on  the  other  hand,  frankly  emotional,  appealed  to  the 
drunkard  through  the  mouth  of  the  converted  drunkard.30 
Here  there  was  no  chance  of  raising  the  cry  of  church  and 
state.  The  signing  of  a  pledge  to  abstinence  set  in  motion  a 
psychological  force  sure  to  have  some  effect.  The  excitement 
died  down  somewhat  after  the  first  burst  of  enthusiasm  of 
1842,  but  thereafter  the  Washingtonian  interest  can  be  traced 
from  time  to  time. 

The  crimes  of  the  day  were  more  numerous  than  those  of 
the  earlier  period  though  in  both  instances  they  arose  from 
the  contact  of  the  wilderness  with  the  property  rights  of  civi- 
lization. Robberies,  at  times  involving  large  sums,  were  not 

28  Alton  Telegraph,  May  23,  September  12,  1838;  Peoria  Register,  December 
29,  1838,  January  19,  May  25,  July  20,  August  3,  1839;  Western  Pioneer,  October 
27,  1837. 

29  Chicago  American,  January  n,  27,  1842. 

30  Sangamo  Journal,  December   17,  31,   1841,  January  21,  March  26,   1842; 
Chicago  American,  January  13,  1842. 


428  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

infrequent.  There  was  an  occasional  murder  not  the  work 
of  a  gang;  one  notes  but  few  cases  of  crimes  of  sex.  Counter- 
feiting and  forgery,  especially  of  land  titles,  were  prevalent. 
Gangs  frequently  combined  several  activities,  making  and  cir- 
culating counterfeits,  horse  stealing,  and  occasional  murder. 
The  large  scale  operation  and  organization  of  these  gangs, 
especially  such  a  one  as  the  banditti  of  the  prairies  in  north- 
ern Illinois,  went  far  beyond  the  ability  of  the  slight  legal 
machinery  of  the  county  to  compass.31 

This  being  the  case  the  citizens  had  occasional  recourse  to 
extraordinary  means.  Sometimes  a  mob  would  wreck  a  little 
hamlet,  the  resort  of  crime  of  all  sorts,  sometimes  it  would 
break  up  a  gambling  booth  at  a  race  course.  Sometimes  soci- 
eties would  be  formed  to  put  down  horse  stealing.  Occasion- 
ally a  man  of  doubtful  life  in  a  community  who  had  excited 
the  wrath  of  his  neighbors  might  be  visited  with  the  extreme 
penalty  of  mob  violence.32 

In  southern  Illinois,  Massac  and  Pope  counties  had  for 
years  been  terrorized  by  a  powerful  gang  of  horse  thieves, 
counterfeiters,  and  robbers  until  in  1846  the  honest  portion 
of  the  citizens  formed  themselves  into  a  band  of  regulators 
to  torture  and  harass  the  rascals  into  leaving  the  state.  Sus- 
pected persons  were  taken  to  the  Ohio  and  held  under  water 
until  willing  to  confess;  "others  had  ropes  tied  around  their 
bodies  over  their  arms,  and  a  stick  twisted  into  the  ropes  until 
their  ribs  and  sides  were  crushed  in  by  force  of  the  pressure  "  33 
in  order  that  information  of  their  confederates  might  be 
gained.  Such  methods  did  not  settle  the  matter,  however,  for 
the  "  Flatheads,"  as  the  outlaws  were  called,  were,  too  numer- 

31  Alton  Telegraph,  September  25,  October  23,  December  n,  1841,  January 
i,  1842,  January  15,  1847;  Chicago  Democrat,  June  25,  July  6,  16,  23,  August  9,  27, 
September  24,  October  8,  15,  21,  November  5,  n,  1845,  July  21,  1846,  September  28, 
1847;  Belleville  Advocate,  September  24,  1836,  January  21,  1847;  Illinois  State 
Register,  March  23,  1838,  October  15,  1841 ;  Sanaamo  Journal,  September  14,  1833, 
January  18,  1834;  Chicago  American,  February  18,  1837,  Ju'v  15>  J839,  Septem- 
ber 5,  1840. 

32  Belleville  Advocate,  July  30,   1841,  July  23,    1846,   September  9,   1847; 
Sanaamo  Journal,  October  u,  1834;  Alton  Telegraph,  November  i,  1837;  Chi- 
cago American,  June  22,  1839. 

33  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  438. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  429 

ous  and  had  been  powerful  for  too  long  a  period  to  be  sum- 
marily disposed  of.  In  Massac  they  gained  the  control  of  the 
county  offices  and  in  August  made  application  to  the  governor 
for  a  militia  force  to  sustain  the  authority  of  the  law.  "  This 
disturbance,"  writes  Governor  Ford,  "being  at  a  distance  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  seat  of  government,  and 
in  a  part  of  the  country  between  which  and  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment there  was  but  very  little  communication,  the  facts  con- 
cerning it  were  but  imperfectly  known  to  the  governor."  84  In 
the  interval  of  inquiry  that  ensued,  disturbances  broke  out  more 
violently  than  ever.  Regulators  from  Pope  county  and  from 
Kentucky  joined  their  fellows  in  Massac,  drove  out  the  offi- 
cers, and  defied  the  judgments  of  the  circuit  court — forcibly 
liberating  those  of  their  number  who  were  arrested;  they 
became  so  sweepingly  tyrannical  that  the  counties  were  almost 
as  terrorized  as  under  the  outlaws.  The  militia,  however, 
refused  to  turn  out  to  protect  officials  in  league  with  horse 
thieves.  Thus  the  regulators  were  left  undisputed  masters 
of  the  county;  they  whipped,  tarred  and  feathered,  and 
drove  out  of  the  country  both  rascals  and  honest  opponents. 
Conditions  became  somewhat  quieter  that  winter  through 
state  intervention;  special  legislation  was  passed  creating  a 
court  to  try  offenders  and  at  the  same  time  vesting  the  gov- 
ernor with  additional  powers  in  that  region.  Notwithstand- 
ing all  efforts,  however,  spasmodic  outbursts  continued  for 
years.35 

The  struggle  of  the  state  to  master  its  problem  of  educa- 
tion, despite  its  rich  endowment,  was  marked  with  only  a 
measured  success.  The  main  reliance  for  the  education  of 
the  young  was  still  on  private  schools.  A  report  to  the  legis- 
lature of  1832  frankly  admitted  that  the  state  policy  must 
be  one  of  grants  in  aid  rather  than  one  of  forming  by  enact- 

34  Ford,  History  of  Illinois,  439. 

35  In  August,  1849,  a  civil  war  was  anticipated.    The  "Flatheads,"  who  had 
killed  a  regulator  informer  by  tying  him  naked  to  a  tree  in  a  mosquito  infested 
district,  barricaded  themselves  with  ammunition  and  two  cannon  taken  from  the 
regulators,  who,  determined  to  arrest  the  murderers,  sent  for  cannon  and  aid 
from  their  friends  in  Kentucky.     Western  Citizen,  August  14,  1849. 


430  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

ment  a  complete  system.  In  Illinois  finance  the  school,  col- 
lege, and  seminary  funds  went  into  the  state  treasury  to  pay 
state  expenses,  the  state  holding  itself  responsible  for  the  pay- 
ment of  interest  for  school  purposes  to  teachers  presenting 
proper  schedules  of  teaching.36 

The  absence  of  anything  like  uniformity  or  organization 
in  the  state's  primary  school  system  was  keenly  felt  by  those 
intimately  connected  with  it.  Teachers  complained  that  par- 
ents afforded  them  no  moral  support  in  disciplining  their  chil- 
dren, that  neighborhoods  by  preference  employed  the  lowest 
bidders  and  therefore  had  the  worst  teachers.  They  com- 
plained of  cold  ill-ventilated  schoolrooms,  of  the  thousand 
and  one  different  methods  of  teaching,  use  of  books,  and  of 
other  difficulties.  The  actual  workings  of  the  Illinois  system 
under  moderately  favorable  conditions  may  be  gathered  from 
the  report  of  a  school  township  secretary  in  Peoria  county. 
His  fund  was  $6,455.96  all  loaned  at  ten  to  twelve  per  cent. 
Of  the  accrued  interest,  however,  only  $178.96  was  collected; 
and  this  with  $184.42  from  the  state  school  fund  was  paid  to 
five  teachers  in  amounts  varying  from  $24.75  to  $118.79. 
The  schools,  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  pupils  ran  two,  four, 
six,  eight,  and  eleven  and  one-half  months  respectively.  With 
this  may  be  compared  the  account  of  a  school  teacher  in  Taze- 
well,  in  whose  school  one  hundred  and  ten  scholars  were  regis- 
tered with  a  maximum  attendance  on  any  day  of  fifty-eight. 
In  addition  to  the  " common  school  branches"  this  man  taught 
astronomy,  philosophy,  chemistry,  surveying,  algebra,  and 
bookkeeping.37 

Nevertheless  in  the  thirties  there  was  real  and  sometimes 
intelligent  interest  in  educational  problems.  The  demonstra- 
tion of  a  new  method  of  teaching  English  grammar  by  lectures 
would  be  the  occasion  of  a  newspaper  invitation  to  the  public 
to  attend  the  meeting.  In  1832-1833  the  formation  of  an 
Illinois  institute  of  education  was  undertaken  to  deal  on  the 

36  Sangamo  Journal,  March  2,  1833;  Laws  of  1836,  p.  249. 

37  Alton  Telegraph,  June  n,  1837;  Sangamo  Journal,  July  22,  1837;  Peoria 
Register,  January  26,  September  21,  1839. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  431 

basis  of  educational  statistics  with  the  difficult  problems  of 
education  in  the  state.  In  1834  delegates  to  a  state  educational 
convention  were  chosen.  That  convention  recommended  the 
establishment  of  school  districts  by  voluntary  action  but  mainly 
devoted  itself  to  recommendations  regarding  seminary  and 
college  funds.  As  early  as  1837  one  finds  an  appeal  for  the 
establishment  of  the  office  of  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion. Interest  began  to  be  directed  in  particular  toward  two 
different  methods  of  school  management  and  teaching — the 
New  England  system  and  the  Prussian.38 

With  the  forties,  however,  the  state  moved  on  toward  a 
unified  system.  Attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  one  hun- 
dred thousand  children  in  Illinois  were  said  to  be  out  of  school 
and  that  28,780  adults  were  accounted  illiterate.  The  act  of 
1841  provided  for  township  administration  of  school  lands 
in  the  familiar  way  with  an  added  provision  that  congressional 
townships  might  on  vote  of  the  people  be  incorporated  for 
school  purposes.  The  Belleville  Advocate  urged  a  similar 
organization  in  St.  Clair  county.  An  attempt  in  1843  to  secure 
an  act  allowing  the  taxation  for  schools  by  local  vote  called 
out  a  flash  of  the  same  opposition  to  taxation  for  education 
that  had  defeated  the  school  law  of  1825.  O.  H.  Browning 
pleaded  for  it  referring  to  what  Connecticut's  school  system 
had  done  for  that  state,  to  which  Orlando  B.  Ficklin  retorted 
that  taxing  one  class  for  the  benefit  of  another  was  unjust  — 
witness  the  fact  that  Connecticut  had  inundated  the  west  with 
clockpeddlers  and  men  who  lived  by  their  wits.  In  1845  an 
act  was  passed  incorporating  all  congressional  townships  as 
school  townships  and  allowing  voters  in  school  districts  to 
levy  a  special  tax  for  the  support  of  the  schools.  More  than 
this,  the  school  system  of  the  state  for  the  first  time  was 
given  unity  by  the  designation  of  the  secretary  of  state 
as  state  superintendent  of  public  schools.  An  attempt  was 

38  Sangamo  Journal,  November  10,  1831,  March  2,  1833,  November  15,  22,  29, 
1834,  January  24,  1835,  September  3,  1837;  Alton  Telegraph,  June  n,  1837; 
Alton  Observer,  January,  March,  1838;  Chicago  Tribune,  July,  1840;  Chicago 
American,  September  17,  1836. 


432  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

made  to  secure  state  recognition  of  German  schools,  but  in 
vain.39 

The  last  years  of  the  old  constitution  were  marked  on  the 
part  of  educators  by  a  renewed  interest  and  hopefulness  in 
their  profession.  A  teachers'  convention  called  at  Jacksonville 
in  1845  set  itself  to  discuss  education  for  professional,  agri- 
cultural, mechanical,  and  commercial  pursuits,  differentiation 
of  education  for  the  sexes,  the  possibility  of  an  efficient  school 
system  without  a  complete  township  system,  and  possible  state 
aid  to  colleges  and  seminaries  in  training  teachers.40  A  teach- 
ers' convention  at  Belvidere  that  same  year  considered  the 
possibility  of  a  normal  school  that  appears  to  have  been  near 
akin  to  the  teachers'  institute. 

The  broadening  interest  in  education  perceived  the  possi- 
bility, and  consequent  necessity  of  teaching  the  blind  and  deaf. 
The  bill  for  the  establishment  of  the  deaf  and  dumb  asylum 
was  passed  in  1839,  but  because  of  insufficient  funds,  the  build- 
ing contract  was  not  let  until  1 843 ;  three  years  later  the  school 
opened  with  thirteen  pupils.  In  1847  a  blind  man  had  under- 
taken, at  the  expense  of  private  charity  in  Jacksonville,  the 
instruction  of  six  blind  children.  The  success  of  the  experi- 
ment was  instrumental  two  years  later  in  the  passage  of  "  an 
act  to  establish  the  Illinois  Institution  for  the  Education  of 
the  Blind."  Through  the  influence  of  the  "Jacksonville 
crowd,"  that  city,  after  much  bickering  in  the  legislature,  se- 
cured both  schools.41 

If  Illinois  lacked  for  a  unified  school  system,  it  did  not 
lack  for  much  private  effort  in  behalf  of  schools,  seminaries, 
and  colleges,  a  surprisingly  large  number  of  which  struggled 
on.  As  early  as  1830  one  notes  high  schools  and  academies, 
sometimes  free  to  subscribers'  children,  sometimes  combined 
with  a  young  ladies'  school  to  teach  the  polite  accomplishments 

89  Alton  Telegraph,  April  17,  1841,  February  n,  25,  1843,  March  22,  1845; 
Chicago  American,  November  10,  1841;  Belleville  Advocate,  December  30,  1841; 
Sangamo  Journal,  February  2,  1843;  Laws  of  184.1,  p.  259;  Laws  of  184.5,  P-  51- 

40  Sangamo  Journal,  June  5,  1845. 

41  Through  the  same  influence  Jacksonville  was  named  as  the  site  of  the 
Illinois  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  in  an  act  passed  in  March,  1847. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  433 

of  that  day.  In  1833  the  Convent  of  the  Ladies  of  Visitation 
was  established  in  connection  with  Menard  Academy  at  Kas- 
kaskia  which  three  years  later  opened  a  commodious  building 
to  pupils.  By  1842  eighteen  sisters  had  the  care  of  seventy 
pupils,  twelve  of  whom  were  orphans  taught  free  of  charge. 
Tuition  for  the  curriculum  of  literature,  music,  and  arithmetic 
was  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  a  year  for  boarding 
pupils,  and  twenty-five  dollars  for  day  students.  In  1844 
the  school  building  was  practically  destroyed  by  the  Missis- 
sippi flood,  and  this  academy  was  removed  to  St.  Louis;  but 
Catholic  day  schools  were  maintained  at  Cahokia,  La  Salle, 
and  other  places  in  this  state.42 

Every  denomination  was  concerned  with  similar  efforts 
to  provide  instruction  for  its  children.  Cartwright  advertised 
a  school  at  Pleasant  Plains  that  began  with  the  three  R's  and 
ended  with  natural  and  moral  philosophy  and  Latin  and  Greek, 
with  promise  of  other  sciences  and  "  female  accomplishments  " 
as  soon  as  suitable  teachers  could  be  found.  Meanwhile,  com- 
mon branches  were  taught  at  the  rate  of  five  dollars  for  a  five 
months'  session  and  one  might  board  with  Cartwright  for  one 
dollar  a  week  if  paid  in  advance,  otherwise  the  rate  was  a 
dollar  and  a  quarter.43 

In  1835  the  Jacksonville  Female  Academy  was  incorpo- 
rated by  the  legislature,  a  majority  voting  to  apply  the  stern 
republican  principle  of  making  trustees  liable  for  debts  con- 
tracted in  their  corporate  capacity.  The  year  1836  saw  a 
much  larger  crop  of  school  corporations,  a  favorite  type  being 
the  "manual  labor"  seminary  in  which  the  students  were  re- 
quired to  labor  with  their  hands  partly  to  lessen  the  cost  of 
their  education,  partly  for  their  health's  sake.  Session  after 
session  of  the  legislature  added  to  the  number  of  these  schools, 
many  of  which  had  real  life  and  energy.  They  offered  studies 
similar  to  those  in  Cartwright's  curriculum.44 

42  Salzbacher,  Melne  Reise  nach  Nord-Amerika  im  Jahre  1842,  p.  227. 

43  Illinois  Intelligencer,  February  6,  November  27,  1830;  Galenian,  May  16, 
1832;  Alton  Spectator,  August  28,  1832,  April  2,  1833. 

44  Laws  of  1835,  p.  192;    Laws  of  1836,  p.  154,  158,  160,  163,  167,  170,  182; 


434  THE    FRONTIER    STATE 

For  children  of  well-to-do  parents,  however,  outside  schools 
held  greater  attractions.  The  Menard  children  went  to 
Georgetown  University  or  to  Missouri  schools.  One  school 
at  Linden  Wood,  St.  Louis,  which  asked  two  dollars  and  a  half 
a  week  for  plain  tuition  and  board,  prescribed  a  uniform  that 
speaks  a  certain  degree  of  luxury.  Sabbath  uniform  dresses 
for  summer  were  white  dress,  pink  sash,  handkerchief,  straw 
bonnet  trimmed  with  light  blue  ribbon,  white  cape,  and  black 
silk  apron;  for  winter  a  crimson  dress  of  English  merino,  white 
collar,  black  silk  apron,  and  dark  green  cloak.45 

The  legislature  had  never  evidenced  any  intention  of  using 
immediately  the  college  and  seminary  funds  for  establishing 
the  schools  for  which  they  had  been  set  aside.  Popular  opinion 
did  not  greatly  protest.  In  1840  the  Chicago  Weekly  Tribune 
believed  the  time  not  yet  ripe  for  a  state  college  or  university, 
though  it  did  insist  that  the  state  should  have  a  competent  sys- 
tem of  high  schools  and  a  school  of  education.46  In  such  a  sit- 
uation it  was  perhaps  inevitable  that,  though  deprecated 
by  some,  collegiate  education  would  develop  along  sec- 
tarian lines.  In  1835  an  act  incorporating  four  colleges, 
specified  that  no  particular  Christian  faith  be  held  or  taught 
in  any,  but  the  prohibition  prevented  only  for  the  moment 
theological  seminary  training  for  it  was  soon  evaded.  In  1840 
the  state  had  twelve  colleges,  though  Illinois  College  was  the 
only  one  granting  degrees. 

The  foundations  of  certain  of  these  colleges  had  been  laid 
before  1830.  Shurtleff  grew  out  of  Peck's  seminary  at  Rock 
Spring,  which  in  1831—1832  had  been  removed  to  Alton  and 
opened  there  as  Alton  Seminary.  It  rejected  in  1833  a  char- 
ter which  forbade  the  teaching  of  theology  by  any  professor; 
but  in  1835  a  somewhat  objectionable  compromise  was  ac- 

2  Laws  of  1837,  p.  43,  87;  Laws  of  1841,  p.  i,  5;  Peoria  Register,  June  22,  1838; 
Alton  Telegraph,  October  10,  1838;  February  22,  1840;  Belleville  Advocate, 
August  20,  1841,  June  5,  1843;  Chicago  American,  April  6,  1841. 

4S  Alton  Observer,  May  25,  1837. 

*a  Sangamo  Journal,  December  8,  1834,  August  22,  1835;  Senate  Journal, 
1833,  i  session,  538;  Lotus  of  1835,  p.  177;  Chicago  Weekly  Tribune,  July  n, 
1840. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  435 

cepted,  a  seminary  being  conducted  side  by  side  with  the  col- 
lege until  1841,  when  the  restriction  was  repealed.  In  1836 
the  name  of  the  college,  in  recognition  of  the  donations  of  Dr. 
Benjamin  Shurtleff,  was  changed  to  Shurtleff  College.47 

For  a  time  men  cherished  great  dreams  of  what  might  be 
done  with  it.  In  1840  the  trustees  projected  a  school  of  dig- 
nified agriculture,  designed  to  teach  the  farmer  his  profession 
scientifically.  The  project  as  it  took  shape  in  their  minds 
seemed  to  be  to  give  the  farmer  a  better  intellectual  back- 
ground; labor  on  the  farm  and  in  the  workshop  was  to  be  com- 
bined with  study.  A  few  days  later  the  Telegraph  printed  a 
letter  purporting  to  come  from  a  farmer,  praising  the  scheme, 
and  enlarging  upon  it.  He  denounced  the  Latin  and  Greek 
colleges  that  gave  only  a  smattering  to  their  students,  leaving 
them  ignorant  of  their  mother  tongue,  and  praised  the  plan 
for  a  professorship  of  English.  For  an  agricultural  depart- 
ment he  suggested  courses  in  horticulture,  lower  mathematics, 
natural  philosophy,  chemistry,  mineralogy,  botany,  compara- 
tive anatomy,  physiology,  with  the  cause  and  cure  of  animal 
and  vegetable  diseases.  More  broadly  he  urged  an  education 
to  obliterate  the  line  between  gentlemen  and  laborers.  This 
idea  was  a  full  quarter  century  ahead  of  its  time.  The  college 
continued  to  develop;  in  1841  it  had  thirty-one  preparatory 
and  collegiate  and  four  theological  students.  In  1841-1842 
the  opening  of  a  medical  school  was  announced.  In  the  later 
years  of  the  period  the  more  radical  Baptists  attacked  the  col- 
lege on  account  of  its  proslavery  views,  and  the  founder  was 
denounced  as  "one  of  the  greatest  proslavery  men  in  the 
state."48 

McKendree  College,  a  Methodist  institution,  developed 
from  Lebanon  Seminary  founded  in  1828.  At  first  there  was 
strong  opposition  in  the  board  of  trustees  itself  both  to  aboli- 
tion and  to  the  establishment  of  a  school  of  theology.  The 
institution  emphasized  the  manual  training  principle  and 

47  Jubilee  Memorial  of  Shurtleff  College,  passim. 

48  Western  Christian,  June  28,  1848;   see  also  Alton   Telegraph,  March  4, 
April  4,  1840,  August  14,  1841,  January  22,  1842. 


436  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

boasted  a  female  department.  Students'  board  bills  were  pay- 
able two-thirds  in  produce,  one-third  in  good  bacon,  pickled 
pork,  beef,  flour,  or  milch  cows  with  young  calves ;  tuition  for  a 
five  months'  term  in  the  higher  branches  was  eight  dollars. 
The  school  was  taken  successively  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Missouri  and  the  Illinois  conferences,  and  in  gratitude  for  a 
donation  from  Bishop  William  McKendree  it  was  renamed, 
first,  McKendreean  College,  then,  McKendree.  It  was  incor- 
porated with  other  colleges  in  1835.  The  college  had  to  sus- 
pend in  1845  but  reopened  in  the  next  year  with  three  pro- 
fessors and  a  principal  for  the  preparatory  department49 

In  1835—1836  Bishop  Philander  Chase  collected  funds  in 
England  for  an  Episcopal  college  in  Illinois;  the  corner  stone 
of  Jubilee  College  was  laid  in  1839  at  Robins  Nest,  Peoria 
county,  but  a  charter  was  not  secured  until  i847.50 

In  1837  the  Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists  laid  the 
foundations  for  two  small  colleges.  Through  the  Reverend 
Gideon  Blackburn  funds  were  obtained  for  a  theological  insti- 
tution at  Carlinville.  He  entered  lands  for  eastern  investors 
at  two  dollars  an  acre,  keeping  twenty-five  cents  of  the  surplus 
over  government  price  for  himself  and  appropriating  the  re- 
mainder to  the  purchase  of  lands  for  the  college.  In  1837  the 
future  Blackburn  University  had  in  trust  an  endowment  of  sev- 
enteen thousand  acres;  the  enterprise,  however,  lay  dormant 
for  twenty  years,  when  in  1857  the  college  was  formally  incor- 
porated. 

The  Reverend  George  W.  Gale,  a  new  school  Presbyterian 
of  New  York,  was  responsible  for  the  inception  of  the  other 
educational  venture.  In  order  to  combine  study  with  whole- 
some physical  labor  for  students  he  conceived  the  idea  of  buy- 
ing at  government  prices  a  township  of  fertile  western  land, 
reserving  a  town  site  and  large  farm  for  the  use  of  a  college, 

49  Catalogue  of  McKendree   College,  1916-1917,  p.  90;  Sangamo  Journal, 
September    13,    1834;    Western    Pioneer,    February    8,    1838;    Alton    Telegraph, 
December  6,  1845;  Belleville  Advocate,  April  n,  1846. 

50  Sangamo  Journal,  February  13,  1836;  Peoria  Register,  December  22,  1838, 
April  6,  1839;  Illinois  Advocate,  December  16,  1835. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  437 

and  selling  the  remainder  which  carried  tuition  rights  in  the 
college  at  five  dollars  an  acre;  the  surplus  would  endow  the 
college.  The  project  met  with  favor;  in  1835  a  committee 
inspected  and  purchased  land  in  Knox  county,  and  forty-six 
colonists  there  undertook  to  carry  out  the  plan.  In  1837 
Knox  Manual  Labor  College  was  incorporated,  and  a  year 
later  forty  students  were  enrolled  at  the  formal  opening  of  the 
academy.  By  1842  there  were  one  hundred  and  forty-seven 
preparatory  students,  and  the  collegiate  department  had  been 
opened  with  ten  freshmen.61 

Illinois  College,  the  greatest  educational  venture  of  the 
Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists  in  Illinois,  was  the  fruit, 
but  a  partial  fruit  indeed,  of  the  imperial  dream  of  a  group  of 
young  students,  the  famous  "Yale  band."  In  Yale  Theolog- 
ical Seminary,  Theron  Baldwin,  John  F.  Brooks,  Mason  Gros- 
venor,  Elisha  Jenner,  William  Kirby,  J.  M.  Sturtevant,  and 
Asa  Turner,  with  the  magnificent  enthusiasm  of  youth  planned 
to  be  workers  in  an  enterprise,  both  educational  and  religious, 
to  raise  the  west  out  of  intellectual  darkness.  Some  of  them 
were  to  serve  as  settled  ministers  or  missionaries,  some  of  them 
to  give  their  time  to  seminaries  and  to  a  college  that  was  to 
crown  the  whole  educational  system.52  At  the  time  that  this 
idea  was  taking  form  the  Reverend  J.  M.  Ellis,  a  Presbyterian 
missionary  in  Illinois  since  1826,  was  busy  with  the  scheme  of 
a  college  in  the  state  of  Illinois  at  Jacksonville;  and  the  little 
group,  accepting  it  as  the  center  of  their  enterprise  —  the  seat 
of  a  new  and  greater  Yale  to  be  reared  on  the  western  prairies 
—  enlisted  the  American  Home  Missionary  Association  in  its 
support.  Illinois  College  opened  in  January  of  1830  with 
Julian  Sturtevant  as  teacher  in  it;  during  the  year  the  Reverend 
Edward  Beecher  came  to  be  president;  three  years  later,  a 
brother  of  Asa  Turner,  Jonathan  Baldwin  Turner,  arrived  and 
began  his  connection  with  the  state.  In  1835—1836  there  were 

51  Alton  Observer,  October  27,  1836,  June  15,  1837;  Catalog  of  Knox  College, 
1914-1915,  p.  52. 

52  Sturtevant,  Sketch  of  Theron  Baldwin,  passim;  Sturtevant,  Autobiography, 
passim. 


438  THE    FRONTIER   STATE 

four  seniors,  seven  juniors,  thirteen  sophomores,  sixteen  fresh- 
men, and  forty  preparatory  students.  In  1839  the  preparatory 
department  was  abandoned  as  tending  to  lower  the  tone  of  the 
college.53  Meanwhile  in  1837,  Baldwin,  who  had  served  as  a 
pastor  and  as  editor  of  the  Common  School  Advocate,  became 
principal  of  the  Monticello  Female  Seminary.  The  college 
had  to  meet  the  question  of  finance.  Its  founders  were  able  to 
supplement  local  resources  with  contributions  from  the  treas- 
uries of  the  society  in  the  east.  A  subscription  of  seventy-five 
thousand  dollars  was  lost  in  the  panic  of  1837.  Finally  in 
1843  tne  Society  for  Promoting  Collegiate  and  Theological 
Education  at  the  West,  with  Theron  Baldwin  as  its  secretary 
and  financial  agent,  took  Illinois  College  over  together  with 
Western  Reserve,  Wabash,  Marietta,  and  Lane  colleges.  In 
1846  Sturtevant  urged  that  the  property  of  the  college  be  sold 
for  Illinois  bonds  than  at  a  heavy  discount,  but  the  scheme  was 
too  visionary  for  the  trustees,  and  they  preferred  to  sell  for 
cash.54 

From  a  larger  point  of  view  the  college  never  met  the  ideal 
of  its  founders,  but  by  no  fault  of  theirs.  To  begin  with  the 
scheme  excited  jealousy  both  from  rival  denominations  and 
from  those  who  believed  New  England  was  plotting  to  federal- 
ize  the  west.  Hardly  had  Sturtevant  arrived  when  Peter  Cart- 
wright  delivered  himself  of  a  sermon,  anathematizing  and 
caricaturing  Presbyterian  doctrine  and  ridiculing  learned  min- 
isters; and  Sturtevant,  at  the  time  just  painfully  learning  to 
preach  without  reading  his  sermon,  was  at  a  disadvantage. 
Further  the  jealousy  between  old  school  and  new  school,  and 
new  school  and  Congregational  was  to  do  its  work.  The 
"Yale  band"  had  imbibed  at  their  alma  mater  the  theology  of 
N.  W.  Taylor  which  was  anathema  to  the  strict  Presbyterian.55 
In  1833  Edward  Beecher,  Julian  Sturtevant,  and  William 
Kirby  were  accused  of  heresy  in  the  presbytery  at  Jacksonville ; 
but  subsequently  they  were  acquitted.  In  1839,  despite  previ- 

53  Alton  Spectator,  February  12,  1836;  Peoria  Register,  October  6,  1839. 

54  Sturtevant,  Autobiography,  268. 

65  Ibid.,  125-132,  161 ;  Galena  Advertiser,  November  30,  1839. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  439 

ous  attempts  on  the  part  of  Beecher  and  Sturtevant  to  prevent 
it,  a  Congregational  church  was  organized  at  Jacksonville. 
Sturtevant  later  gave  some  countenance  to  it;  and  as  the  tide 
of  New  Englanders  sweeping  into  the  north  disregarded  the 
plan  of  union  and  organized  churches  of  their  own,  distrust 
and  suspicion  deepened.  The  antislavery  views  of  men  like 
Beecher  and  Sturtevant  were  an  added  difficulty.  Finally,  in 
1844,  Beecher  resigned,  possibly  from  necessity.  Turner  fol- 
lowed him  a  few  years  later;  but  Sturtevant  remained  to  round 
out  a  long  career  at  Jacksonville. 

The  story  of  Illinois  College  leads  naturally  to  the  con- 
sideration of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  intellectually 
in  the  state  of  that  day — Jonathan  Baldwin  Turner.  The 
fact  that  of  what  he  offered  her,  his  country,  and  especially 
his  adopted  state,  cared  to  take  only  the  Osage  orange  hedge 
and  the  agricultural  college,  should  not  blind  the  student  to 
the  fact  that  Turner's  intellectual  interests  were  far  broader 
than  either  scientific  agriculture  or  highly  technical  education. 
In  1843—1844  for  example,  he  edited  at  Jacksonville  the 
Illinois  Statesman;  and  that  paper  to  the  student  of  ideas  is  a 
land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey  in  a  desert  otherwise  relieved 
only  by  half-arid  oases.  From  other  papers  one  can  learn  only 
by  indirection  of  the  intellectual  life  of  Illinois  of  that  day; 
from  Turner  one  gets  the  comment  on  it  of  a  powerful  and 
keenly  interested  mind. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  Turner  would  compromise 
with  the  public  tastes  of  his  day.  Sensational  news  had  so 
little  interest  to  him  that  he  would  not  vex  himself  to  give  it  to 
his  readers.  Under  the  head  of  "Crimes  and  Casualties"  he 
printed:  "Our  paper  is  small,  and  if  our  readers  will  for  the 
present  just  have  the  goodness  to  imagine  a  certain  due  pro- 
portion of  fires,  tornadoes,  murders,  thefts,  robberies  and  bully 
fights,  from  week  to  week,  it  will  do  just  as  well,  for  we  can 
assure  them  they  actually  take  place."56  The  man  who,  when 
the  thunders  of  denominational  denunciation  were  rolling  forth 

58  Scott,  Newspapers  and  Periodicals  of  Illinois,  Ixxiv. 


440  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

against  Mormonism,  was  moved  to  analyze  the  sect  as  a  fas- 
cinating study  in  comparative  religion  was  not  likely  to  blind 
his  eyes  to  the  violence  of  the  deeds  and  plans  of  the  anti-Mor- 
mons. He  urged  the  people  of  the  Military  Tract  to  abide  by 
the  law  and  to  have  pity  on  the  helpless  at  Nauvoo.  What 
would  Europe  think  of  the  state,  if  one  year  she  granted  Smith 
lawmaking  powers  and  the  next  made  open  war  on  him?57 

Because  of  Turner's  keen,  trenchant  comment  on  politics 
the  Illinoisan  made  fierce  war  on  the  "  crack-brained,  gaping, 
half-witted  theorist  Yankee,"  who  cheerfully  replied  in  abusive 
rhetoric  that  Milton  himself  might  have  envied.  Turner's 
paper  reflected  a  popular  disgust  with  political  partisanship 
and  party  manipulation  on  either  side,  declaring  that  the  poli- 
ticians on  both  sides  were  usually  men  who  could  not  be  trusted 
with  any  of  the  ordinary  concerns  of  life.  Turner  was  dis- 
gusted with  Van  Buren  as  a  political  manipulator  and  hoped 
for  a  time  that  Calhoun  might  lead  the  party  to  a  higher 
plane  of  statesmanship,  until  he  saw  the  latter's  slavery  drift. 
At  the  same  time  he  regarded  the  possible  defeat  of  Clay,  the 
duelist  and  gambler,  as  a  moral  triumph.  Further  he  tore  to 
pieces  mercilessly  the  whigs'  argument  for  protection  and  other 
of  their  pet  doctrines.  He  was  keen  enough  to  see  that  the 
democrats  really  stood  in  theory  at  least  for  certain  funda- 
mental truths  as  well  as  for  certain  very  important  measures. 
To  the  whigs  he  was  willing  to  ascribe  the  conservative  func- 
tion, that  of  promoting  steadiness  and  stability  of  progress, 
remarking  that  they  necessarily  had  to  show  greater  states- 
manship than  their  opponents  for  this  very  reason.58 

In  his  consideration  of  the  slavery  question  Turner  steered 
as  original  a  course  as  he  did  elsewhere.  He  was  not  an  out 
and  out  abolitionist,  and  he  occasionally  deprecated  the  vio- 
lence of  referring  to  all  slaveholders  as  kidnappers  and  man- 
stealers.  As  to  runaways  he  was  disposed  to  think  the  proper 
course  somewhere  midway  between  turning  all  the  people  of 

57  Illinois  Statesman,  September  18,  25,  1843. 

58  Illinoisan,  November  17,  1843;  Illinois  Statesman,  July  17,  August  14,  28, 
October  2,  16,  November  27,  December  4,  1843,  February  19,  March  n,  27,  1844. 


SOCIAL    ADVANCE  441 

Illinois  into  slavecatchers  and  enticing  slaves  away.  As  a 
result  he  had  one  or  two  tifts  with  the  Western  Citizen.  He 
denounced  slavery  bitterly  enough  in  his  own  way,  as  an  in- 
stitution in  monstrous  contrast  with  the  nation's  principles  of 
political  liberty,  or  an  imposition  on  a  majorty  of  the  whites 
for  the  benefit  of  an  aristocratic  ruling-class  minority.  He 
professed,  however,  that  he  could  not  support  the  liberty  party 
on  the  ground  that  he  could  not  vote  for  a  man  like  James  G. 
Birney  who  was  not  a  tried  statesman.59  On  the  exclusion  from 
church  membership  of  slaveholders  he  remarked  with  a  full 
vision  of  the  essential  barrenness  of  "one  idealism"  that  "no 
one  conformity  or  non-conformity  can  make  a  man  good  or 
bad."60  His  final  comment,  however,  on  the  intellectual  fer- 
ment that  followed  on  the  train  of  abolitionism  in  the  east 
was,  "  there  is  always  some  good  in  all  protestantism." 

Religiously  that  was  Turner's  ideal.  His  creed  was  simply 
Christianity,  including  belief  in  the  atonement  and  in  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  as  containing  all  the  doctrine  necessary  to 
man's  salvation.  It  had,  however,  no  place  in  it  for  heresy 
hunting  and  little  for  denominational  organization.  Baptism 
to  him  was  a  rite  which  any  minister  without  regard  to  church 
bounds  was  entitled  to  perform  for  all  believers.  His  notion 
of  church  membership  ended  with  the  association  of  men  into 
voluntary  societies  having  no  control  of  baptism  or  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  He  was  Congregational  in  his  belief  solely 
from  a  pragmatic  view  of  the  essential  flexibility  of  that  sys- 
tem.61 There  was  to  him  no  halfway  house  between  the  entire 
independency  of  the  local  church  and  the  centralization  of 
government  under  the  Vatican  at  Rome. 

Turner  emphatically  was  the  critic  rather  than  the  expo- 
nent of  the  Illinois  of  his  day.  Yet  he  introduced  into  the  in- 
tellectual life  of  the  state  a  freshness  of  view,  a  cosmopolitan- 
ism that  by  the  very  fact  that  it  jars  no  more  sharply  upon  its 

59  Illinois  Statesman,  November  27,  1843,  February  19,  23,  26,  March  4,  May 
27,  1844. 

™Ibld.,  February  26,  1844. 
81  Ibid.,  April  29,  1844. 


442  THE   FRONTIER   STATE 

surroundings  shows  how  Illinois  had  traveled  since  the  early 
days  of  statehood.  Society  in  the  state,  conventionalized  and 
stiff,  posing  in  every  intellectual  attitude,  original  in  nothing, 
had  had  a  change  worked  in  it.  Men  had  come  to  think  broadly 
in  terms  of  general  political  principles;  they  had  come  to  think 
more  independently  on  the  set  forms  of  law,  of  slavery,  and, 
as  Turner  exemplified,  of  the  set  dogmas  and  forms  of  church 
doctrine  and  discipline.  The  Illinois  of  1818  like  the  nation 
it  existed  in  was  dreaming  dreams  and  interpreting  the  future 
in  terms  of  the  past;  in  the  Illinois  of  1848,  there  were  many 
men  of  vigorous  mind  who  had  visions  of  the  future. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 
I 

MANUSCRIPTS 

Eddy  manuscripts,  Shawneetown,  Illinois.    Transcripts  in  Illinois  His- 
torical Survey,  University  of  Illinois,  Urbana. 
Edwards  papers  in  Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts. 
Kane  manuscripts  in  Chicago  Historical  Society  manuscripts. 

II 

NEWSPAPERS 

Newspapers  form  a  source  of  inestimable  value  in  writing  Illinois  history 
of  this  period.  Indeed,  for  any  approximately  full  or  continuous 
record,  it  is  only  through  them  that  the  pioneer  state  may  be  pieced 
together ;  economically,  socially,  and  in  especial  politically,  they  pre- 
serve, for  the  critical  student,  a  reflection  of  early  Illinois. 

For  a  complete  bibliography  of  Illinois  newspapers,  as  well  as  for 
additional  data  on  those  here  listed,  see :  Scott,  Franklin  W.,  News- 
papers and  Periodicals  of  Illinois,  1814-1879  (Springfield,  1910) 
[Collections  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Library,  volume  6]. 
Files  in  the  Chicago  Historical,  Springfield  State,  and  University  of 
Illinois  libraries  have  been  utilized  where  possible,  but  files  of  papers 
at  Belleville  have  supplemented  these. 

Alton  American,  1833-1834,  Alton,  Illinois. 

Alton  Observer,  1836-1837,  Alton,  Illinois. 

Alton  Spectator,  1832-1839,  Alton,  Illinois. 

Alton  Telegraph,  1836-1848,  Alton,  Illinois. 

Aurora  Beacon,  1847-1849,  Aurora,  Illinois. 

Baptist  Helmet,  1844-1845,  Vandalia,  Illinois. 

Belleville  Advocate,  1839-1848,  Belleville,  Illinois. 

Chicago  American,  1835-1839,  Chicago,  Illinois  [continued  as  Daily 
American}. 

Chicago  Daily  Journal,  1844-1848,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

Chicago  Democrat,  1833-1848,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

Chicago  (Weekly)  Tribune,  1840-1841,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

Congressional  Globe,  see  in  the  division  of  federal  and  state  documents. 

Edivardsville  Spectator,  1819-1826,  Edwardsville,  Illinois. 

Farmers  and  Mechanics  Repository,  1842-1843,  Belleville,  Illinois. 

443 


444  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Galena  Advertiser,  1829-1830,  Galena,  Illinois. 

Galenian,  1832-1836,  Galena,  Illinois. 

Genius  of  Liberty,  1840-1842,  Lowell,  Illinois  [continued  as  Western 

Citizen}. 

Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  1838-1839,  Hennepin,  Illinois. 
Hancock  Eagle,  4-1845-1846-)-,  Nauvoo,   Illinois. 
Illinois  Advocate,   1831-1832,   Edwardsville,   Illinois,  and    1832-1833, 

Vandalia,  Illinois.     Its  title  was  changed  to  Illinois  Advocate  and 

State  Register,   1833-1835,  then  to  Illinois  Advocate,  1835-1836, 

then  to  Illinois  State  Register  and  Illinois  Advocate,  1836,  and  to 

Illinois  State  Register  and  People's  Advocate,  1836-1839. 
Illinois  Emigrant,  1818-1819,  Shawneetown,  Illinois  [continued  as  the 

Illinois  Gazette,  1819-1830]. 

Illinois  Gazette,  1819-1830,  Shawneetown,  Illinois. 
Illinois  Intelligencer,   1818-1820,  Kaskaskia,   Illinois,  and    1820-1832, 

Vandalia,  Illinois  [then  combined  with  Illinois  Whig}. 
Illinois  Journal,  1847-1848,  Springfield,  Illinois. 
Illinois  State  Register  and  People's  Advocate,  1836-1839,  Springfield, 

Illinois  [became  Illinois  State  Register  in  1839]. 
Illinois  Statesman,  1843-1844,  Jacksonville,  Illinois. 
Illinoisan,  1837-1844,  Jacksonville,  Illinois. 
Kaskaskia  Republican,  1824-1825,  Kaskaskia,  Illinois. 
Little  Fort  Porcupine  and  Democratic  Banner,  1845-1847,  Little  Fort 

and  Waukegan,  Illinois. 

Miner's  Journal,  1826-1832,  Galena,  Illinois. 
Nauvoo  Neighbor,  1843-1845,  Nauvoo,  Illinois  [continued  as  Hancock 

Eagle}. 

Peoria  Register  and  Northwestern  Gazetteer,  1837-1842,  Peoria,  Illinois. 
Peoria  Register,  1842-1845,  Peoria,  Illinois  [had  been  Peoria  Register 

and  Northwestern  Gazetteer,  1837-1842,  Peoria,  Illinois]. 
Quincy  Whig,  1838-1848,  Quincy,  Illinois. 
Rock  ford  Forum,  1844-1848,  Rockford,  Illinois. 
Sangamo  Journal,  1831-1847,  Springfield,  Illinois.     It  was  called  the 

Sangamon  Journal  until  1832;  in  1847  the  name  was  changed  to 

Illinois  Journal. 

Times  and  Seasons,  1839-1846,  Nauvoo,  Illinois. 
Vandalia  Free  Press,  1836-1837,  Vandalia,  Illinois  [continued  as  Free 

Press  and  Illinois  Whig,  1837-1841 ;  continued  as  Vandalia  Free 

Press,  1843-1844]. 

Vandalia  Whig  and  Illinois  Intelligencer,  1832-1834,  Vandalia,  Illinois. 
Warsaw  Signal,  1841-1843,  Warsaw,  Illinois. 
Wasp,  1842-1843,  Nauvoo,  Illinois  [continued  as  Nauvoo  Neighbor]. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  445 

Western  Christian,  1845-1848,  Elgin,  Illinois. 

Western  Citizen,  1842-1848+,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

Western  Monthly  Magazine,  a  continuation  of  the  Illinois  Monthly 

Magazine,  Cincinnati,  1833-1835. 
Western  Pioneer  and  Baptist  Standard  Bearer,  1836-1837,  Alton,  Illinois 

[continued  as  Western  Pioneer,  1837-1838]. 


Ill 

FEDERAL  AND  STATE  DOCUMENTS 
ILLINOIS 

Bluebook.  Compiled  by  the  secretary  of  state  (printed  by  authority  of 
the  state  of  Illinois). 

Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  1818- 
1847  (published  at  the  state  capitols,  1819-1847). 

Journal  of  the  Senate  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  1818-1847  (published  at 
the  state  capitols,  1819-1848). 

[Law]  Reports.  Reports  of  Cases  at  Common  Law  and  in  Chancery, 
argued  and  determined  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Illinois, 
from  its  first  Organization  in  1819,  to  the  end  of  December  term, 
1831.  Volume  i  by  Sidney  Breese  (Chicago,  1877),  volume  2,  3,  4, 
5  by  J.  Young  Scammon  (Chicago,  1886,  1887,  1880,  1886),  vol- 
ume 7,  by  Charles  Oilman  (Chicago,  1888). 

Laws,  1819-1847   (published  at  the  state  capitols,  1819-1847). 

Reports  made  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  volumes  1839-1845,  1863,  volume  I  (Springfield,  1840- 
1846,  1863)  [Cited  as  Reports  General  Assembly]. 

UNITED  STATES 

American  State  Papers,  38  volumes  (Washington,  1832-1861). 

Annals  of  Congress,  42  volumes  (Washington,  1834-1856). 

Congressional  Globe  .  .  .  containing  sketches  of  the  debates  and  pro- 
ceedings of  .  .  .  congress,  17  volumes  (Washington,  1835-1848). 

Executive  Documents  of  the  House  of  Representatives  (Washington, 
1831-1846). 

Journal  of  the  Convention,  assembled  at  Springfield,  June  J,  i847, 
.  .  .  for  the  purpose  of  altering,  amending,  or  revising  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  State  of  Illinois  (Springfield,  1847). 

Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  (Wash- 
ington, 1818-1848). 


446  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Journal  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  of  America   (Washington, 

1818-1849). 

Kappler,  Charles  J.,  (ed.)  Indian  Affairs,  Laws,  and  Treaties.  Com- 
piled to  December  I,  1902  (Washington,  1903)  [Senate  Docu- 
ments, volume  34,  57  congress,  I  session,  number  452], 

Register  of  Debates  in  Congress,  .  .  .  important  State  Papers  and  Pub- 
lic Documents,  and  the  Laws,  of  a  public  nature,  enacted  during  the 
session,  1 8  volumes  (Washington,  1824-1837)  [Cited  as  Congres- 
sional Debates} . 

Senate  Documents  (Washington,  1818-1847). 

Sixth  Census  or  Enumeration  of  the  Inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  as 
corrected  at  the  Department  of  State  in  1840  (Washington,  1841). 


IV 
CONTEMPORARY  ACCOUNTS 

Bennett,  John  C.,  The  History  of  the  Saints;  or,  an  expose  of  Joe  Smith 
and  M  or  monism  (Boston,  1842). 

Birkbeck,  Morris,  Letters  from  Illinois  (London,  1818). 

Birkbeck,  Morris,  Notes  on  a  journey  in  America,  from  the  coast  of  Vir- 
ginia to  the  territory  of  Illinois  (London,  1818). 

Blair,  Emma  H.,  (ed.)  The  Indian  Tribes  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Val- 
ley and  Region  of  the  Great  Lakes,  as  described  by  Nicolas  Perrot, 
French  commandant  in  the  Northwest;  Bacqueville  de  la  Potherie, 
French  Royal  Commissioner  to  Canada;  Morrel  Marston,  Amer- 
ican army  officer;  and  Thomas  Forsyth,  United  States  agent  at  Fort 
Armstrong  (Cleveland,  1912). 

Blane,  William  Newnham,  An  excursion  through  the  United  States  and 
Canada  during  the  years  1822-1823  by  an  English  gentleman  (Lon- 
don, 1824). 

Broadsides  in  Chicago  Historical  Society. 

Caswall,  Henry,  The  Prophet  of  the  Nineteenth  Century:  or  the  rise, 
progress,  and  present  state  of  the  Mormons,  or  latter  day  Saints:  to 
which  is  appended,  an  analysis  of  the  book  of  Mormon  (London, 

1843). 

Circular  to  the  public  by  James  W.  Singleton,  September,  1846,  in  Chi- 
cago Historical  Society. 

Cobbett,  William,  A  Year's  residence  in  the  United  States  of  America. 
Treating  of  the  face  of  the  country,  the  climate,  the  soil,  the  prod- 
ucts, the  mode  of  cultivating  the  land,  the  prices  of  land,  of  labor,  of 
food,  of  rainment;  of  the  expenses  of  house-keeping,  and  of  the  usual 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  447 

manner  of  living;  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people;  and  of 
the  institutions  of  the  country,  civil,  political,  and  religious.  In 
three  parts  (London,  1822). 

Coles,  Edward,  to  Joseph  Duncan,  April  28,  1835,  in  House  Journal, 
1835-1836,  2  session  (Vandalia,  1835). 

Delafield,  John,  to  Edward  Coles,  April  20,  1835,  in  House  Journal, 
1835-1836,  2  session  (Vandalia,  1835). 

Duden,  Gottfried,  Bericht  iiber  eine  Reise  nach  den  westlichen  Staaten 
N ordamerika' s  und  einem  mehrjdhrigen  Aufenthalt  am  Missouri 
.  .  .  (Elberfeld,  1829). 

Edwards,  Ninian,  The  Edwards  Papers;  Being  a  portion  of  the  Collec- 
tion of  the  Letters,  Papers,  and  Manuscripts  of  Ninian  Edwards 
.  .  .  edited  by  E.  B.  Washburne  (Chicago,  1884)  [Chicago 
Historical  Society's  Collection,  volume  3]. 

Expedition  against  the  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians,  1832.  Narrative  of  the 
Expedition  against  the  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians,  furnished  to  the  Mili- 
tary and  Naval  Magazine,  by  an  Officer  who  served  in  General  At- 
kinson's Brigade  (New  York,  1914)  [Reprinted  from  the  Military 
and  Naval  Magazine  of  the  United  States  of  August,  1833]. 

Faux,  William,  Memorable  Days  in  America:  being  a  Journal  of  a  tour 
to  the  United  States  .  .  .  (London,  1823)  [Reprinted  in  Thwaites, 
Reuben  G.,  Early  Western  Travels,  volume  II,  Cleveland,  1905]. 

Fear«n,  Henry  B.,  Sketches  of  America.  A  Narrative  of  a  Journey  of 
Five  Thousand  Miles  through  the  Eastern  and  Western  States  of 
America:  .  .  .  with  remarks  oh  Mr.  Birkbeck's  "Notes"  and 
"Letters"  (London,  1819). 

Flower,  George,  History  of  the  English  Settlement  in  Edwards  County, 
Illinois,  founded  in  1817  and  1818  by  Morris  Birkbeck  and  George 
Flower.  Edited  by  E.  B.  Washburne  (Chicago,  1882)  [Chicago 
Historical  Society's  Collection,  volume  i], 

Fl«wer,  Richard,  Letters  from  Lexington  and  the  Illinois,  containing  a 
brief  Account  of  the  English  Settlement  in  the  latter  Territory  and 
a  Refutation  of  the  Misrepresentations  of  Mr.  Cobbett  (London, 
1819)  [Reprinted  in  Thwaites,  Reuben  G.,  Early  Western  Travels, 
volume  10,  Cleveland,  1904). 

Fl«wer,  Richard,  Letters  from  the  Illinois,  1820,  1821;  containing  an 
Account  of  the  English  Settlement  at  Albion  and  its  vicinity,  and  a 
Refutation  of  the  various  Misrepresentations,  those  more  particu- 
larly of  Mr.  Cobbett  (London,  1822)  [Reprinted  in  Thwaites, 
Early  Western  Travels,  volume  IO,  Cleveland,  1904]. 

F«rd,  Thomas,  A  History  of  Illinois  from  its  commencement  as  a  state 
in  i8i8to  1847  (Chicago,  1854). 


448  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Fordham,  Elias  Pym,  Personal  Narrative  of  Travels  in  Virginia,  Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Kentucky;  and  of  a  Residence  in 
the  Illinois  Territory:  1817-1818.  Edited  by  Frederic  A.  Ogg 
(Cleveland,  1906). 

Forsyth,  Thomas,  "Manuscript  account  of  the  causes  of  the  Black  Hawk 
War  written  in  1832"  printed  as  appendix  to  Wau-Bun — the  early 
Day  in  the  Northwest.  By  Mrs.  John  Kinzie  (Philadelphia,  1873). 

Gale,  George  W.,  History  of  Knox  College  and  Galesburgh,  Illinois 
(Cincinnati,  1845). 

Greene,  Evarts  B.,  and  Clarence  W.  Alvord  (ed.),  Governors'  Letter 
Books,  1818-1834  (Springfield,  1909)  [Collections  of  the  Illinois 
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Harris,  William  T.,  Remarks  made  during  a  Tour  through  the  United 
States  of  America  in  the  years  1817,  1818,  and  1819  (London, 
1821). 

Hulme,  Thomas,  Journal  of  a  Tour  In  the  Western  Countries  of  Amer- 
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printed in  Thwaites,  Reuben  G.,  Early  Western  Travels,  volume 
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Journal  of  the  Annual  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  Diocese  of  Illinois,  1843-1857  (Peoria,  1843,  1845,  Alton,  1846, 
Jubilee  College,  1847-1853,  Chicago,  1856,  1857). 

Lee,  John  D.,  The  Mormon  Menace.  Being  the  confession  of  John 
Doyle  Lee,  Danite,  an  official  assassin  of  the  Mormon  Church  under 
the  late  Brigham  Young.  Introduction  by  Alfred  Henry  Lewis 
(New  York,  1905). 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  The  Writings  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  federal  edition. 
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1905). 

Minutes  of  the  Annual  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
volumes  2,  3,  4  (New  York,  1829-1837). 

Minutes  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  in  the 
United  States  of  America  (Philadelphia,  1826-1831,  1840-1851). 

Parker,  Amos  A.,  Trip  to  the  West  and  Texas.  Comprising  a  Journey  of 
eight  thousand  Miles  through  New  York,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Mis- 
souri, Louisiana,  and  Texas,  in  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1834-1835 
(Concord,  N.  H.,  1835). 

Peck,  John  M.,  A  gazetteer  of  Illinois,  in  three  parts:  containing  a  gen- 
eral view  of  the  state,  a  general  view  of  each  county,  and  a  particu- 
lar description  of  each  town,  settlement,  stream,  prairie,  bottom, 
bluff,  etc.,  alphabetically  arranged  (Jacksonville,  1834). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  449 

Presbytery  of  Ottawa,  Minutes  of  the  Presbytery  of  Ottawa  (Ottawa, 

1843). 

Salzbacher,  Joseph,  Meine  Reise  nach  Nord-Amerika  im  Jahre  1842 
(Vienna,  Austria,  1845). 

Sparks,  Edwin  E.,  (ed.)  The  English  Settlement  in  the  Illinois.  Re- 
prints of  three  rare  tracts  on  the  Illinois  country.  With  maps  and  a 
view  of  a  British  colony  house  at  Albion  (London  and  Cedar 
Rapids,  Iowa,  1907). 

Synod  of  Peoria,  Minutes  of  the  .  .  .  Annual  Session  of  the  Synod  of 
Peoria  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica (Peoria,  1844,  1846). 

Wakefield,  John  A.,  History  of  the  Black  Hawk  War  (Jacksonville, 
1834)  [Reprinted  by  Frank  E.  Stevens,  Chicago,  1908]. 

Whittlesey,  Charles,  "Recollections  of  a  Tour  through  Wisconsin  in 
1832,"  Collections  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin, 
volume  I  (Madison,  Wisconsin,  1855). 

Woods,  John,  Two  Years'  Residence  in  the  Settlement  on  the  English 
Prairie,  in  the  Illinois  Country,  United  States,  with  an  account  of  its 
Animal  and  Vegetable  Production,  Agriculture,  &c.,  &c.,  A  descrip- 
tion of  the  Principal  towns,  villages,  &c.,  &c.,  with  the  habits  and 
customs  of  the  back-woodsman  (London,  1822)  [Reprinted  in 
Thwaites,  Reuben  G.,  Early  Western  Travels,  volume  10,  Cleve- 
land, 1904]. 


V 

BIOGRAPHY  AND  REMINISCENCE 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  comprising  por- 
tions of  his  diary  from  1795  to  1848.  Edited  by  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  12  volumes  (Philadelphia,  1874-1877). 

Black  Hawk,  Autobiography:  life  of  Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kick,  or  Black 
Hawk.  With  an  account  of  the  Cause  and  general  History  of  the 
late  War,  his  Surrender  and  Confinement  at  Jefferson  Barracks,  and 
Travels  through  the  United  States.  Dictated  by  himself.  Edited 
by  J.  B.  Patterson  (Boston,  1834). 

Cartwright,  Peter,  Autobiography  of  Peter  Cartwright,  the  backwoods 
preacher.  Edited  by  W.  P.  Strickland  (Cincinnati,  1856). 

Clark,  John,  "Father  Clark,"  or  the  Pioneer  Preacher.  Sketches  and 
Incidents  of  Rev.  John  Clark.  By  an  old  pioneer  (New  York, 
1855). 


450  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Clark,  Satterlee,  "Early  Times  at  Fort  Winnebago,  and  Black  Hawk 
War  Reminiscences,"  Report  and  Collections  of  the  State  Historical 
Society  of  Wisconsin,  1877,  1878,  and  1879,  volume  8  (Madison, 
Wisconsin,  1879). 

Drake,  Benjamin,  The  Life  and  Adventures  of  Black  Hawk.  With 
sketches  of  Keokuck,  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians,  and  the  late  Black 
Hawk  War  (Cincinnati,  1838). 

Edwards,  Ninian,  History  of  Illinois  from  1778  to  1833;  and  life  and 
times  of  Ninian  Edwards  (Springfield,  1870). 

Hubbard,  Guidon  S.,  Incidents  and  Events  in  the  life  of  Gurdon  Salton- 
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Johnson,  Allen,  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  A  Study  in  American  Politics 
(New  York,  1908). 

Koerner,  Gustave,  Memoirs  of  Gustave  Koerner,  1809-1896.  Life 
sketches  written  at  the  suggestion  of  his  children.  Edited  by  Thomas 
J.  McCormack,  volume  i  (Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  1909). 

Nicolay,  John  G.,  and  John  Hay,  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  history,  volume 
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Peck,  John  M.,  Memoir  of  John  Mason  Peck.  [Forty  Years  of  Pioneer 
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Reynolds,  John,  My  own  Times,  embracing  also  the  History  of  my 
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Snyder,  John  F.,  Adam  W.  Snyder  and  his  Period  in  Illinois  History, 
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Sturtevant,  Julian  M.,  Julian  M.  Sturtevant:  An  Autobiography.  Edited 
by  J.  M.  Sturtevant,  Jr.  (New  York,  1896). 

Sturtevant,  Julian  M.,  Sketch  of  Theron  Baldwin  (Boston,  1875) 
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Tillson,  Christiana  H.,  Reminiscences  of  early  life  in  Illinois  by  out- 
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Washburne,  Elihu  B.,  Sketch  of  Edward  Coles,  second  governor  of  Illi- 
nois and  of  the  slavery  struggle  of  1823-1824  (Chicago,  1882). 


VI 

MONOGRAPHS  AND  SPECIAL  WORKS 

Abel,  Annie  H.,  "The  History  of  Events  resulting  in  Indian  Consolida- 
tion West  of  the  Mississippi,"  Annual  Report  of  the  American  His- 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY  451 

Andreas,  A.  T.,  History  of  Chicago  from  the  earliest  Period  to  the  present 
Time,  3  volumes  (Chicago,  1884-1886). 

Babcock,  Kendric  C.,  The  Scandinavian  Element  in  the  United  States 
(Urbana,  1914)  [University  of  Illinois  Studies  in  the  Social 
Sciences,  volume  3  ] . 

Bancroft,  Hubert  H.,  History  of  Utah  (San  Francisco,  1889)  [Works 
of  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft,  volume  26], 

Beinlich,  B.  A.,  "The  Latin  Immigration  in  Illinois,"  Illinois  State 
Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1909. 

Berry,  Orville  F.,  "The  Mormon  Settlements  in  Illinois,"  Illinois  State 
Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1906. 

Ballance,  Charles,  The  History  of  Peoria,  Illinois  (Peoria,  1870). 

Bateman,  Newton,  and  Paul  Selby,  (ed.)  Historical  Encyclopedia  of 
Illinois,  volume  2,  History  of  Peoria  County.  Edited  by  David  Mc- 
Culloch,  2  volumes  (Chicago  and  Peoria,  1902). 

Blegen,  Theodore  C.,  "Ole  Rynning's  True  Account  of  America,"  Min- 
nesota History  Bulletin,  volume  2,  November,  1917  (Saint  Paul, 
1917). 

Boggess,  Arthur  C.,  The  Settlement  of  Illinois,  1778-1830  (Chicago, 
1908)  [Chicago  Historical  Society's  Collection,  volume  5]. 

Breese,  Sidney,  The  Early  history  of  Illinois  from  its  discovery  by  the 
French,  in  1673,  until  its  cession  to  Great  Britain  in  1763  .  .  . 
Edited  by  Thomas  Hoyne  (Chicago,  1884). 

Brown,  William  H.,  An  Historical  Sketch  of  the  early  Movement  in 
Illinois  for  the  legalization  of  slavery  (Chicago,  1876). 

Buck,  Solon  J.,  Illinois  in  1818  (Springfield,  1917)  [Illinois  Centennial 
Publications,  introductory  volume]. 

Buck,  Solon  J.,  "The  New  England  Element  in  Illinois  Politics  before 
1833,"  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association,  Proceedings,  vol- 
ume 6  (Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  1913). 

Catalog  of  Knox  College,  1914-1915  (Galesburg,  Illinois,  1915). 

Catalogue  of  McKendree  College  (Lebanon,  Illinois,  1912). 

County  histories  have  in  general  been  found  useful  for  local  informa- 
tion. For  complete  bibliography  of  Illinois  counties  see:  Buck, 
Solon  J.,  Travel  and  Description  1765-1865  together  with  a  List  of 
County  Histories,  Atlases,  and  Biographical  Collections  and  a  List 
of  territorial  and  state  Laws  (Springfield,  1914)  [Collections  of  the 
Illinois  State  Historical  Library,  volume  9]. 

Dowrie,  George  W.,  The  Development  of  Banking  in  Illinois,  1817-1863 
(Urbana,  1913)  [University  of  Illinois  Studies  in  the  Social 
Sciences,  volume  2]. 


452  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Elliot,  Isaac  H.,  (ed.)  Record  of  the  services  of  Illinois  Soldiers  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War,  1831-1832,  and  in  the  Mexican  War,  184.6- 
1848.  Prepared  and  published  by  authority  of  the  thirty-second 
General  Assembly  (Springfield,  1902). 

Everett,  Edward,  "Narrative  of  Military  Experience  in  Several  Capac- 
ities," Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1905  (Spring- 
field, 1906). 

Fairlie,  John  A.,  County  and  Town  Government  in  Illinois  [Reprinted 
from  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science,  Philadelphia,  May,  1913]. 

Faust,  Albert  B.,  The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,  with  spe- 
cial Reference  to  its  political,  moral,  social,  and  educational  Influence 
(Boston,  1909). 

Garraghan,  Gilbert  J.,  "Early  Catholicity  in  Chicago,  1673-1843,"  Illi- 
nois Catholic  Historical  Journal,  volume  I,  number  I  (Chicago, 
1918). 

Harris,  Norman  D.,  History  of  Negro  Slavery  in  Illinois  and  of  the 
Slavery  Agitation  in  that  State  (Chicago,  1906). 

Hicks,  E.  W.,  Outline  of  Illinois  Baptist  History  (Toulon,  Illinois). 

Hicks,  E.  W.,  History  of  Kendall  County,  Illinois,  from  the  earliest  dis- 
coveries to  the  present  time  (Aurora,  Illinois,  1877); 

History  of  Winnebago  County,  Illinois,  its  Past  and  Present  (Chicago, 

1877). 
Jubilee  Memorial  of  Shurtleff  College,  Upper  Alton,  Illinois  (Alton, 

1877). 

Koerner,  Gustave  P.,  Das  deutsche  element  in  den  Vereinigten  Staaten 
von  Nordamerika,  1818-1848  (Cincinnati,  1880). 

Kofoid,  Carrie  P.,  "Puritan  Influences  in  the  Formative  Years  of  Illinois 
History,"  Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  Transactions,  1905. 

Leaton,  James,  History  of  Methodism  in  Illinois,  from  1793  to  1832 
(Cincinnati,  1883). 

Lee,  Judson  Fiske,  "Transportation.  A  Factor  in  the  Development  of 
Northern  Illinois  previous  to  1860,"  Illinois  State  Historical  So- 
ciety, Journal,  volume  10. 

Lockwood,  James  H.,  "Early  Times  and  Events  in  Wisconsin,"  Second 
Annual  Report  and  Collections  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of 
Wisconsin,  1855,  volume  2  (Madison,  1856). 

Moses,  John,  Illinois,  Historical  and  Statistical,  comprising  the  Essen- 
tial Facts  of  its  Planting  and  Growth  as  a  Province,  County,  Terri- 
tory and  State,  2  volumes  (Chicago,  1889). 

Moses,  John,  and  Joseph  Kirkland,  History  of  Chicago,  Illinois  (Chi- 
cago, 1895). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  453 

Neve,  J.  L.,  A  Brief  History  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America  (Bur- 
lington, Iowa,  1916). 

Pease,  Theodore  C.,  The  County  Archives  of  the  State  of  Illinois 
(Springfield,  1915)  [Collections  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical 
Library,  volume  12]. 

Pooley,  William  V.,  Settlement  of  Illinois,  1830-1850  (Madison,  1908) 
[Reprinted  from  Bulletin  of  University  of  Wisconsin,  history  series, 
volume  i]. 

Putnam,  James  W.,  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal.  A  study  in  economic 
history  (Chicago,  1917)  [Chicago  Historical  Society's  Collection, 
volume  10], 

Quaife,  Milo  M.,  Chicago  and  the  Old  Northwest,  1673-1835.  A  study 
of  the  evolution  of  the  northwestern  frontier,  together  with  a  his- 
tory of  Fort  Dearborn  (Chicago,  1913). 

Rice,  James  M.,  Peoria,  City  and  County,  Illinois;  a  Record  of  Settle- 
ment, Organization,  Progress  and  Achievement  (Chicago,  1912). 

Royce,  Charles  C.,  (ed.)  Indian  Land  Cessions  in  the  United  States 
(Washington,  1899)  [Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  Eighteenth 
Annual  Report,  1896-1897,  part  2.  In  House  Documents,  volume 
1 1 8,  56  congress,  I  session,  document  736]. 

Salisbury,  Herbert  S.,  "The  Mormon  War  in  Hancock  County,"  Illinois 
State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  volume  8. 

Savage,  G.  S.  F.,  Pioneer  Congregational  Ministers  in  Illinois  (Chicago). 

Smith,  Joseph  and  Herman  C.,  History  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter  Day  Saints,  1836-1844,  1844-1872,  volumes  2  and  3 
(Laomi,  Iowa,  1908). 

Stevens,  Frank  E.,  The  Black  Hawk  War,  including  a  Review  of  Black 
Hawk's  Life  (Chicago,  1903). 

Stevens,  Wayne  E.,  "The  Shaw-Hanson  Election  Contest,"  Illinois 
State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  volume  7. 

Thompson,  Charles  M.,  The  Illinois  Whigs  before  1846  (Urbana,  1915) 
[University  of  Illinois  Studies  in  the  Social  Sciences,  volume  4]. 

Thrapp,  Russel  F.,  "Early  Religious  Beginnings  in  Illinois,"  Illinois 
State  Historical  Society,  Journal,  volume  4. 

Thwaites,  Reuben  G.,  The  Story  of  the  Black  Hawk  War  (Madison, 
1892)  [Collections  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin, 
volume  12]. 

Treat,  Payson  J.,  The  National  Land  System,  1785-1820  (New  York. 

1910). 
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INDEX 


A.  B.  plot,  98,  99,  101,  102,  103 

Adams,  James,  149;  gubernatorial  can- 
didate, 145,  20611 

Adams,  Captain  John  G.,  i6$n 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  92,  240,  268,  289, 
328,  364,  370,  380;  charges  against  in 
campaign  1828,  116,  117,  118,  120, 
121,  122 ;  Cook  supported,  96,  107, 
1 08,  111-112;  Edwards  lost  favor 
with,  98-99;  elected  president,  115; 
influence  of,  in  local  politics,  123, 
124,  127,  128,  129,  131,  132,  133,  139, 
141,  145 ;  one  founder  of  whig  party, 
236;  presidential  chances  of,  106 

Adams  county,  174,  203,  2o6n,  325,  369 

Africa,  85,  87 

Agriculture,  122;  abundant  crops,  400; 
among  Mormons,  348,  349;  Birk- 
beck's  influence  on,  and  founding  of 
society,  15-17;  Bond  encouraged, 
105;  crops,  383;  estimated  output  of 
farms,  207;  extent,  6-7,  15;  German 
influence  on,  393 ;  improvements  in, 
383-385;  Irish  undertake,  396;  meth- 
ods of,  and  kind  of  land  for,  179-181 ; 
products  shipped  to  New  Orleans, 
52;  Scandinavian  interest  in,  399; 
Scotch  influence  on,  398;  slave  labor 
and,  88-89 ;  Turner's  contribution  to, 

439 

Alabama,  174-175 

Albany,  190,  237,  254,  275 

Albion,  82;  Flower  founded,  15;  library 
at,  393n 

Alexander  county,  89,  112 

Alexander,  General  Milton  K.,  287;  in 
Black  Hawk  War,  165,  167 

Alexander,  William  M.,  61 

Allen,  W.  T.,  organized  antislavery  so- 
cieties, 371 

Allen,  William,  247;  editor  of  Madi- 
sonian,  245 ;  proposed  for  president, 
329 

Alsace,  423 

Alton,  9,  84,  192,  198,  206,  209,  210,  340, 
348,  375i  385,  386;  all-Oregon  meet- 
ing at,  328 ;  anti-abolition  resolutions 
passed  at,  370;  branch  bank  at,  305; 
commercial  importance  of,  189,  212, 
221,  309-310,  387;  Lovejoy  killed  in, 


365-368;  Peck  edited  paper  in,  366; 
prohibition  at,  426 ;  proposed  capital 
site  at,  202,  203 ;  school  at,  22 ;  Sun- 
day school  established  at,  29 

Alton  and  Mt.  Carmel  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Alton  and  Shawneetown  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Alton  and  Shelbyville  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Alton  and  Springfield  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Alton  Seminary,  see  education 

Alton,  Wabash,  and  Erie  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Ambrister,  Robert  C.,  114 

American  Bottom,  5,  42 

American  Fur  Company,  3 

Amusements,  150,  410-413 

Anderson,  Richard  C.,  70 

Anderson,  Stinson  H.,  284 

Andover,  399 

Andrews,  Eliza  Julia,  14 

Andrews,  Bishop  James  Osgood,  376 

Anti-Edwards  faction,  see  politics 

Apple  river,  165 

Arbuthnot,  Alexander,  114 

Archer,  William  B.,  n6n,  i42n 

Arkansas,  331 

Armstrong,  Fort,  3,  160,  161 

Arnold,  Benedict,  405 

Arnold,  Isaac  N.,  298,  301 

Atkinson,  General  Henry,  commanded 
forces  against  Black  Hawk,  160,  161, 
163,  165,  166,  167,  170-171 

Atlantic  Bank,  see  banking 

Atlantic  ocean,  120,  219 

Auplaine,  411 

Axley,  James,  25-26 

Bachus  and  Fitch,  384 

Backenstos,  Jacob  B.,  attempted  to  stop 

anti-Mormon  riots,  356-357,  358,  359, 

361 

Bad  Axe,  battle  at,  169-171 
Bailhache,  John,  338,  339 
Baker,  David  J.,  138 
Baker,  Edward  D.,  281,  286,  293,  296, 

381,  401 
Baldwin,  Theron,  437,  438 


455 


456 


INDEX 


Baltimore,   n,  140,  240,  242,  253,  277, 

329»  335,  387,  388 

Bancroft,  George,  262 

Banking,  261,  284;  Atlantic  Bank,  228; 
Bank  of  Cairo,  312;  Bank  of  Ed- 
wardsville,  55-56,  92-93,  100-101 ; 
Bank  of  Illinois,  55,  56,  93,  224,  306, 
308,  312,  313,  314,  318,  320,  322; 
Bank  of  Missouri,  54-55,  93;  Bank 
of  St.  Louis,  56;  Bank  of  United 
States,  52,  53-55,  242-244,  259,  260, 
263,  271,  284,  304;  career  of  new 
state  bank,  303-315;  Crawford's  pol- 
icy, 53-55,  98,  ioo,  102,  103;  defeat 
of  Edwards'  policy,  126;  democrats 
divided  on  policy,  245-249 ;  Duncan's 
policy,  285;  early  attempts  at,  52-69; 
Edwards  faction  interested  in,  93 ; 
failure  of,  400;  issues  on,  in  congres- 
sional campaign  of  1834,  147-148; 
Jackson's  policy,  242-244,  262;  new 
constitution  revived  in  charters,  409 ; 
State  Bank,  56-62,  74,  in,  131,  142, 
145-146,  224,  242-244,  291,  303-315, 
318,  320;  State  Bank  of  Indiana,  313 ; 
summary  of,  68-69  »  Tyler's  policy, 
272-274;  Van  Buren's  policy,  265- 
266 ;  whig  attitude  toward,  258.  See 
currency  and  finance 

Baptist  church,  369;  attitude  toward 
slavery,  81,  376 ;  Kinney  minister  in, 
130;  organization  and  influence  of, 
26,  27-29 

Baptists,  attitude  toward  Sunday 
schools,  425;  growth  of,  415-416; 
school  of,  434-435 

Barbour,  John  S.,  71 

Bardstown,  422 

Baring  Brothers,  323 

Barrett,  Robert  F.,  229,  285,  309 

Barton,  David,  121,  123 

Bath,  393n 

Beardstown,  160,  191,  206,  217 

Beaubien,  Mark,  423 

Beaumont,  George  A.  O.,  230 

Beecher,  Edward,  437,  438,  439 

Belleville,  213,  250,  276,  426;  branch 
bank  at,  305 ;  center  of  German  set- 
tlement, 392;  chose  Kinney  guberna- 
torial candidate,  144;  greets  Mexican 
War  veterans,  406 ;  Jackson  support- 
ers in,  117;  library  at,  393;  market 
at,  385-386 

Belleville  railroad,  see  transportation 

Beloit,  192 

Beloit  College,  see  education 

Belvidere,  432 

Bennett,  James  Gordon,  344 


Bennett,  John  C.,  345-347 

Benton,  Thomas  Hart,  243,  264,  266, 
276,  277;  attacked  Bank  of  Edwards- 
vi'Je,  92;  Duncan  supported,  127;  in- 
terested in  Oregon,  328 ;  presidential 
candidate,  275 ;  public  lands  policy, 
121-123,  185-188;  quoted,  11-12;  sup- 
ported Crawford,  96 

Berry,  William,  82,  144,  294 

Biddle,  Nicholas,  83,  224 

Birkbeck,  Morris,  23 ;  antislavery  writ- 
ings of,  87-89;  death  of,  90-91;  Eng- 
lish immigrant,  397;  enterprise  and 
influence  of,  12-15;  influences  agri- 
culture, 15-17;  urged  to  start  anti- 
convention  press,  82 

Birney,  James  G.,  antislavery  presi- 
dential candidate,  371,  441 

Bishop  Hill,  399 

Bissell,  William  H.,  295,  401,  402,  406 

Blackburn,  Gideon,  436 

Blackburn  University,  see  education 

Black  Hawk,  beaten  for  stealing,  issn; 
first  resistance  of,  156-159;  signed 
treaty  of  1816,  154;  war  of,  159-172 

Black  Hawk  War,  145,  159-172,  393, 
422 

Blackwell,  David,  108 

Blackwell,  Robert,  82,  293 

Blair,  Francis,  P.,  245 

Bloomington,  177,  210,  217 

Bloomington  and  Mackinaw  railroad, 
see  transportation 

Bloomington  and  Pekin  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Bloomington,  Wabash  and  Pekin  rail- 
road, see  transportation 

Blue  Mounds,  170 

Boggs,  Lilburn  W.,  347-348 

Boltonhouse  prairie,  13 

Bond,  Benjamin,  238,  239 

Bond,  Shadrach,  16,  76n,  97,  104,  126; 
became  Jackson  supporter,  124;  Cook 
defeated,  103 ;  elected  governor,  95 ; 
encouraged  agriculture,  105 ;  in  canal 
corporation,  196 ;  member  of  anti- 
Edwards  faction,  94;  reported  on 
state  finances,  68 

Bond  county,  29,  2o8n,  221,  232;  agri- 
cultural society  in,  16;  Bible  society 
in,  30;  anti-conventionists  organized 
in,  81;  antislavery  meeting  in,  363; 
manufacturing  company  in,  8n ;  set- 
tlement in,  3,  173 

Booth,  Louis  M.,  298 

Borders,  Andrew,  378 

Boston,  310,  323,  355 

Bourbonnais  Grove,  423 


INDEX 


457 


Brainard,  Dr.  Daniel,  414 

Breese,  Sidney,  119,  137,  249,  332;  con- 
gressional aspirant,  127,  139;  guber- 
natorial candidate,  250,  287-288 ;  in- 
fluence on  state  history,  412;  justice 
of  supreme  court,  283 ;  policies  of, 
141;  proposed  Illinois  Central,  207, 
209;  supported  Reynolds,  132 

British,  see  English 

Brochport,  384 

Brockman,  Thomas  S.,  361 

Brooks,  John  F.,  437 

Brown',  Erasmus,  196 

Brown,  Henry,  275 

Brown,  William  H.,  forced  out  of  In- 
telligencer, 82;  influence  on  state 
history,  412 

Browne,  Thomas  C,  141,  215,  279;  con- 
firmed justice,  125;  elected  judge, 
95;  gubernatorial  candidate,  76; 
justice,  35;  member  of  Edwards  fac- 
tion, 93 ;  member  of  supreme  court, 
35;  reflected  to  supreme  court,  109 

Browning,  Orville  H.,  204,  220,  226, 
285,  294,  347,  431 

Brownsville,  59,  60,  61-62 

Brute,  Bishop  Simon  Gabriel,  423-424 

Brutus,  see  Hall 

Buchanan,  James,  275 

Bucklin,  James  M.,  199 

Buena  Vista,  338,  405 

Buffalo,  191,  206 

Bunsen,  George,  392 

Bureau  county,  174,  369,  379 

Burgess,  Tristram,  259 

Butler,  Peter,  238 

Butterfield,  Justin,  321,  348 

Cahokia,  8,  295,  433 

Cairo,  9,  212,  220;  bank  chartered  at, 
55;  commercial  importance  of,  218- 
219.  See  banking 

Caldwell,  Billy,  422 

Caldwell,  John,  55,  93 

Caldwell,  Samuel,  55 

Caledonia,  219 

Calhoun,  John  C,  92,  99,  120,  133,  134, 
149,  204,  237,  239,  268,  275,  276,  301 ; 
Edwards  supported,  96-97,  139;  land 
policy  of,  187,  336;  Republican  sup- 
ported, 98 ;  seek  Jackson's  power, 
138;  Turner's  attitude  toward,  440; 
withdrew  from  presidential  race, 
105-106 

Calhoun  county,  3,  174 

California,  337,  403 

Calumet  river,  198 

Calvin,  John,  25 


Cambreleng,  Churchill  C.,  n6n 

Campbellites,  26,  341 

Canada,  282,  337,  380 

Canadians,  Catholics,  423 

Canal,  see  transportation 

Carlin,  Thomas,  204,  226,  228,  290, 
310,  313;  appoints  new  secretary  of 
state,  278;  bank  policy,  309;  calls 
special  session,  223 ;  elected  gover- 
nor, 250;  farewell  message  of,  317; 
Irish  immigrant,  396;  ordered  Smith 
arrested,  348;  policy  toward  inter- 
nal improvements,  219,  224,  231 

Carlinville,  270,  436 

Carmi,  9,  84 

Carpenter,  Milton,  238,  239 

Carpenter,  Philo,  4200 

Carroll  county,   174,  176 

Carrollton,  Mississippi,  and  Springfield 
railroad,  see  transportation 

Carthage,  359;  anti-Mormon  meeting 
at>  35°>  357!  Smiths  murdered  in, 
352 

Cartwright,  Peter,  149,  237;  influence 
of,  25-26,  31;  opposed  Baptists,  28- 
29;  opposed  Presbyterians,  417,  438; 
opposed  Sunday  school  union,  425 ; 
school  of,  433 

Casey,  Zadoc,  131,  147,  255,  294,  364; 
congressman,  284-285;  financial  pol- 
icy of,  245,  246,  247,  248;  strength 
of,  249 

Cass,  Lewis,  157,  336,  375,  381;  presi- 
dential candidate,  275 

Catholics,  29,  261;  colony  of,  179; 
growth  of,  422-424;  schools  of,  433 

Caton,  John  D.,  379 

Cavarly,  Alfred  W.,  116,  301,  324 

Central  Branch  Wabash  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Cerro  Gordo,  406 

Champaign  county,  330,  385 

Champlain,  Lake,  333 

Charleston  -  Memphis  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Charleston  railroad,  see  transporta- 
tion 

Chase,  Philander,  376,  422,  436 

Chicago,  194,  269,  270,  275,  282,  294, 
298,  300,  312,  321,  329,  334,  340,  348, 
3^1,  395,  42011;  amusements  in,  410; 
antislavery  convention  at,  372; 
branch  bank  at,  305,  309;  growth 
and  commercial  importance  of,  189, 
190-191,  192,  203,  208,  209,  313,  385, 
387-390,  411;  Irish  in,  396;  land 
sales  at,  175,  176,  177;  number  of 
Catholics  in,  422-424;  river  and  har- 


458 


INDEX 


bor  convention  at,  335;  Rush  Medi- 
cal College  founded  in,  414;  sale  of 
lots  in,  to  pay  for  canal,  200-201 ; 
slaves  aided  in,  380;  Swedish  set- 
tlement in,  399 

Chicago  and  Galena  Union  railroad, 
see  transportation 

Chicago  river,  194,  198 

Chillicothe,  240 

Chippewa,  159 

Christian  church,  27,  81,  421 

Christian  county,  178 

Churchill,  George,  78 

Cilley,  Jonathan,  276 

Cincinnati,  355;   393^  414 

Clark  county,  89,  405 

Clark,  Fort,  3,  26 

Clark,  George  Rogers,  379 

Clark,  Nathaniel  C.,  work  of,  420 

Clarke,  R.  Williams,  147 

Clay,  Henry,  92,  112,  118,  120,  123,  139, 
140,  141,  142,  187,  237,  268,  276,  328, 
333,  338,  339,  375,  380,  440;  Edwards 
friendly  toward,  124;  following  in 
whig  party,  274;  one  founder  of 
whig  party,  236 ;  presidential  chances 
for,  106;  public  land  policy  of,  185- 
186,  188;  votes  cast  for,  107 

Clay,  Henry,  Jr.,  killed  in  Mexican 
War,  406 

Clay  county,  5,  205,  218 

Cleveland,  176 

Clinton  county,  3 

Cobbett,  William,  14 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,  373 

Coles,  Edward,  62,  119,  141,  200,  208; 
bought  Intelligencer  for  antislavery 
paper,  82;  characterization  and  his- 
tory of,  75-76 ;  congressional  as- 
pirant, 127;  distributed  antislavery 
tracts,  82-83 ;  effect  of  antislavery 
recommendations,  76-77 ;  elected 
governor  1822,  76;  in  canal  corpora- 
tion, 196;  interested  in  salt  works, 
66;  last  years  of  political  life,  90-91 ; 
quoted,  38,  40;  senatorial  candidate 
1824,  124-125;  vice  president  of  ag- 
ricultural society,  16;  violated  slave 
law  of  1819,  48 

Coles  county,  144,  324 

Colleges,  see  education 

Collins,  Frederick,  285,  371 

Collins,  Colonel  James,  401 

Columbia,  173 

Commerce,  Mormon  settlement  at,  344 

Congregationalists,  attitude  toward 
slavery,  375 ;  growth  of  and  connec- 


tion    with     Presbyterians,    419-421; 
schools  of,  436-439 
Connecticut,  9,  27,   178,   179,   184,   344, 

4*9,  43i 

Constitution,  see  government 

Cook,  Chauncey,  371 

Cook,  Daniel  Pope,  120,  124,  125,  128, 
i33n;  attacks  upon,  103-104,  107-108; 
canal  policies  of,  12,  195,  196-197; 
death  of,  126;  elected  attorney-gen- 
eral, 95  ;  member  of  Edwards  fac- 
tion, 93  ;  opinion  on  validity  of  Or- 
dinance of  1787,  71  ;  opposed  conven- 
tion, 90;  opposed  slavery,  72-73; 
reasons  for  defeat  of,  no,  111-113, 
114;  secured  Edwards'  appointment 
to  Mexico,  99  ;  successes  of,  103  ; 
supported  Adams  and  opposed  Craw- 
ford, 96-98,  103  ;  voted  for  Adams, 
107 

Cook,  John,  72,  96 

Cook  county,  203,  230,  260,  281,  395, 


Covenanters,  29 

Covington,  84 

Cowles,  Edward,  61 

Crawford,  William  H.,  92,  109,  115, 
123,  124,  138,  139,  143;  attacked  in 
Illinois,  105  ;  bank  policy  of,  53-55  ; 
Coles  supported,  76;  Edwards'  con- 
troversy with,  96-103  ;  presidential 
chances  for,  106  ;  votes  cast  for,  107 

Crawford,  Fort,  169 

Cross,  Mr.,  379 

Culture,  advance  of,  1830-1848,  410- 
414;  crime,  427-429;  extent  of  in 
1818,  7,  8,  17-31;  in  1830,  150;  laws 
touching  upon  social  life,  44-47;  of 
Belleville  Germans,  392;  religious 
influence  on,  425-426;  temperance, 
23,  30,  426-427.  See  education  and 
religion 

Cumberland  Presbyterian  church,  29 

Cumberland  road,  see  transportation 

Currency,  condition  of,  313,  314;  early 
unstable,  9,  52-62;  kind  paid  for 
land,  183,  187;  kind  paid  for  taxes, 
62-63;  lack  of,  400;  limited  amount 
of  gold  and  silver,  220;  policy  of 
democratic  party  toward,  242-245, 
247;  salines  promoted  circulation  of, 
74;  school  funds  used  to  redeem 
State  Bank  notes,  67-68  ;  whigs  fa- 
vored paper,  266.  See  banking  and 
finance 

Danville,  i43n,  176,  206,  208,  210,  212, 
305 


INDEX 


459 


Darien,  337 

Davenport,  Colonel  George,  174 

Davidson,  William  H.,  14211,  147,  286 

Davis,  George  T.  M.,  302,  338 

Davis,  John,  323 

Davis,  S.  H.,  175 

Dayton,  176 

Dearborn,  Fort,  3,  1710,  422n 

Decatur,  178,  206,  207,  210 

Declaration  of  Independence,  86,  373 

De  Kalb  county,  330 

Delafield,  John,  225,  228,  233 

Delaware,  299 

Dement,  John,  140 

Democratic  party,  see  politics 

Desmoulin,  Mr.,  had  a  school  at  Kas- 
kaskia,  22 

DCS  Plaines  river,  3,  194-195,  198 

Detroit,  424n 

Dickens,  Charles,  413 

Disciples  of  Christ,  see  Christians 

District  of  Columbia,  52,  364 

Dixon,  161,  163,  177,  192 

Dixon's  Ferry,  174 

Dodge,  Major  Henry,  165,  167 

Doty,  James  Duane,  290 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  204,  246,  250, 
253,  26in,  298,  299,  314,  335,  347, 
348,  379 ;  congressional  nominee,  255 ; 
elected  to  congress,  294;  internal 
improvement  interests  of,  331;  in- 
ternal improvement  proposals  of, 
212;  justice  of  supreme  court,  283; 
Mormons  friendly  to,  345;  on  Ore- 
gon question,  329;  on  Wilmot  pro- 
viso, 381;  power  of,  in  party,  249; 
seeking  favor,  247 

Dover  Academy,  see  education 

Downing,  Jack,  260 

Drayton,  William,  u6n 

Duden,  Gottfried,  391 

Duncan,  James  M.,  108;  attacked  as 
cashier  of  bank,  61;  influence  of, 

»37 

Duncan,  Joseph,  61,  62,  133,  134,  140, 
149,  187,  204,  215,  237,  238,  252,  255, 
261,  283,  307;  attitude  toward  Jack- 
son's banking  policy,  244;  candidate 
for  governor  1833,  144-145;  candi- 
date for  governor  1842,  234-235,  285- 
286,  289,  290-292;  deserts  Jackson, 
143-147;  elected  governor,  146-147, 
148;  elected  to  congress,  107-108,  in, 
127-128,  139;  in  canal  corporation, 
196;  influence  of,  137;  internal  im- 
provement policy,  199,  200-201,  208, 
219;  opposed  bank,  304;  opposed 
Mormonism,  345;  quoted,  258-259; 


supported  Benton's  bill,  121,  122 
Dunkards,  29 
Dunn,  Charles,  139 
Dutch,  275 

Eagan,  James  F.,  400 

Early,  Dr.,  140 

East  India,  273 

Eastman,  Zebina,  371 

Ebenezer,  22 

Economic  conditions,  affected  by  immi- 
gration, 390;  among  Germans,  392- 
393 ;  among  Mormons,  348 ;  Birk- 
beck's  opinion  on,  88-89  »  conditions 
in  1818,  7-9;  distress  of,  in  1820, 
74;  in  England,  12;  in  English  set- 
tlement, 13-15;  in  Germany,  391;  in 
Ireland,  396;  in  northern  settlements, 
177,  178,  179-181,  189-193;  in  Swe- 
den, 399;  in  1830,  150;  of  Scotch, 
397;  slavery  and,  373. 

Eddy,  Henry,  128,  147,  249,  256,  285; 
favored  convention,  82,  90;  Jackson 
elector,  106 ;  proposed  admission  of 
slavery,  73-74 

Eden,  375 

Edgar  county,  3,  89,  112,  223 

Education,  advance  of  medical,  414; 
Alton  Seminary,  434;  Beloit  College, 
420;  Blackburn  University,  436; 
Convent  of  the  Ladies  of  Visitation, 
433;  discussion  of,  22-23;  Dover 
Academy,  420;  early  efforts  at  pub- 
lic, 429-432,  434;  effect  of  Sunday 
schools  upon,  30,  424-425;  founding 
of  denominational  schools,  416-425 ; 
frontiersmen's  attitude  toward,  28 ; 
funds  for  and  legislation  affecting, 
66-68;  Galesburg  Female  Seminary, 
420;  Georgetown  University,  434; 
growth  of  private  schools,  432-439 ; 
Illinois  College,  94,  203,  261,  417, 

419,  434,  437-439;  in  Shawneetown, 
8 ;    Jacksonville    Female    Seminary, 

420,  433;  Jubilee  College,  376,  422, 
436;   Knox  College,   179,  420,  427; 
Lebanon  Seminary,  435;  McKendree 
College,  435-436;  Menard  Academy, 
433;    Monticello    Female    Seminary, 
420,  438;    Mormon   school,  344;   of 
blind     and     deaf,     432;     Princeton 
Academy,   420;    Reynolds   promised 
fund    for,    129;    Rockford    Female 
Seminary,  420;   Rush  Medical  Col- 
lege, 414;  Scandinavian  interest  in, 
399;  school  fund,  196,  233,  318,  409; 
schools  in  Washington,   178;   Shurt- 
leff  College,  376,  416,  434-435;  Uni- 


460 


INDEX 


versity  of  St.  Mary's  of  the  Lake, 
424;  Whipple  Academy,  420 

Edwards,  Ninian,  54,  123,  141,  143,  144, 
248,  278,  285;  ambiguous  party  af- 
filiation 1828-1829,  124;  appointed 
minister  to  Mexico,  99-100,  103;  at- 
tacked Crawford,  96-103 ;  attacks 
upon,  104-105;  campaigned  in  1826, 
109-110;  candidate  for  governor, 
108;  characterization  of,  93,  112-113  ; 
condition  in  faction  of,  137,  138; 
Cook  son-in-law  of,  93 ;  defeated  for 
congress  1832,  139;  defeated  for 
senate  1824,  125;  description  of  fac- 
tion about,  92-94;  elected  governor, 
in;  elected  senator,  95;  Hanson 
enemy  of,  79;  hostile  to  Crawford, 
93;  Indian  policy  of,  152;  internal 
improvement  policy,  120,  210,  212, 
219;  lack  of  influence  of  in  1828,  126; 
land  of,  in  Military  Tract,  175;  land 
policy,  122,  185;  opinion  of,  on 
Cook's  defeat,  in;  opposed  conven- 
tion, 90;  policy  of,  toward  bank,  60- 
61 ;  proslavery  interests  of,  73 ; 
quoted,  128;  recommended  Kinney 
governor  of  Huron  territory,  138; 
refused  to  be  candidate  for  gover- 
nor, 76;  senatorial  aspirant  1830, 
133-134;  strife  between  Thomas  and, 
95-98 ;  supported  cause  of  Missouri, 
72;  supported  Johnson,  140;  sup- 
ported Reynolds  for  governor,  128, 
129,  131,  132-134;  withdrew  from 
Bank  of  Edwardsville,  55-56 

Edwards,  Mrs.  Ninian,  47 

Edwards  county,  12 

Edwards  faction,  see  politics 

Edwards,  Fort,  3 

Edwardsville,  Bank  of,  see  banking 

Edwardsville,  29,  61,  73,  82,  84,  100, 
145,  210,  415;  antislavery  society 
formed  in,  80;  Coles  register  of  land 
office  at,  76;  Edward's  land  monop- 
oly in,  104;  history  of  bank  at,  55-60; 
Illinois  Corrector  printed  at,  117; 
interest  of  Edwards  faction  in,  92; 
land  office  at,  4-5,  175,  176;  library 
at,  393n;  trade  at,  9 

Eells,  Dr.  Richard,  379 

Effingham  county,  288,  393n 

Egypt,  214,  218,  330 

Elgin,  376 

Elkhorn,   192 

Elkin,  G.,  275 

Ellis,  John  Milcot,  417,  437 

Emancipating  Brethren,  27 

Emmet,  John,  77 


Emmett,  James,  354 

England,  19,  29,  36,  43,  268,  273,  323, 
327,  374;  and  Oregon,  328;  condi- 
tions in,  leading  to  immigration,  12- 

13,  397 

Englemann,  George,  392 

English,  43,  154,  156,  157,  159,  162, 
208,  244,  259n,  273,  322,  373,  388n, 
391 ;  comment  on  manners  of  Illi- 
noisians,  17;  interested  in  canal  pro- 
ject, 323;  settlement  of,  12-15,  397. 
See  population 

English  Prairie,  12-15,  32 

Equality,  210,  218 

Erie,  Alton  and  Wabash  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Erie  canal,  see  transportation 

Erie,  Lake,  205,  206 

Erie  railroad,  see  transportation 

Ernst,  Ferdinand,  393n 

Episcopalian  church,  attitude  of  bishop 
of,  376;  established,  14;  growth  of, 
421-422;  school  of,  436 

Europe,  u,  15,  20,  115,  200,  244,  266, 
267,  39*.  392,  397,  440 

Evans,  James,  2o8n 

Everett,  Edward,  116 

Ewing,  William,  L.  D.,  5,  140,  2o6n, 
246,  255,  303,  304,  308;  suggested  for 
governor,  144 

Fairfield,  420 

Farnham,  Russell,  174 

Fayette  county,  anti-conventionists  or- 
ganized in,  81;  freeholders  in,  5; 
literary  societies  in,  21 ;  proposed 
roads  in,  42;  voted  against  conven- 
tion, 90 

Fellows,  O.  H.,  285 

Ficklin,  Orlando  B.,  322,  329;  elected 
to  congress,  294;  internal  improve- 
ment interests  of,  330,  331,  332,  333; 
on  school  system,  431;  on  Wilmot 
proviso,  381 

Field,  Abner,  61,  62 

Field,  Alexander  Pope,  78,  80,  140, 
14411,  195,  221,  247,  249;  and  life 
office  issue,  278-279;  congressional 
aspirant,  139;  Jackson  man,  124; 
supported  Jackson,  116,  117 

Finance,  affected  by  slavery  issue,  74, 
86;  and  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal, 
225-231;  and  internal  improvement 
scheme,  216-225;  and  railroads,  205- 
214;  and  the  canal,  195-201;  attack 
on  Crawford's  policy  toward,  98- 
103;  chaotic  condition  of,  232-234; 
condition  of,  1830-1845,  303-315; 


INDEX 


461 


Crawford's  policy,  53-55;  Edwards 
attacked,  in;  Edwards'  policy  to- 
ward, defeated,  126 ;  Ford's  meas- 
ures concerning,  317-326;  importance 
of  western  lands  to,  183 ;  provisions 
of  general  assemblies  for,  56-57;  59- 
61,  68-69;  source  of  revenue,  62-68; 
subtreasury,  338;  use  of  school 
funds,  66-69,  43° 

Fischer,  Father  Francis,  423 

Fithian,  William,  285,  324. 

Fitzmaurice,  Father  Charles,  423 

Fleming,  Robert  K.,  82,  132 

Florid,  376 

Florida,  331 

Flower,  George,  English  immigrant, 
397;  established  English  settlement, 
12-15;  feud  between  Birkbeck  and, 
14-15;  sent  freed  Negroes  to  Haiti, 

49 

Flower,  Richard,  English  immigrant, 
397;  interested  in  sheep,  385;  inter- 
est of,  in  English  settlement,  12-13; 
urged  to  start  anti-convention  press, 
82 

Foot,  Samuel  A.,  attitude  toward  pub- 
lic lands,  183-184 

Ford,  Thomas,  279,  285,  291,  295,  296, 
297,  304,  305,  3i5,  348,  410;  attacks 
upon,  299;  bank  policy  of,  313-314; 
calls  for  volunteers,  400 ;  elected  gov- 
ernor, 292 ;  influence  on  state  history, 
412;  history  of,  316;  justice  of  su- 
preme court,  283 ;  measures  against 
Mormons,  352,  358,  361,  362;  meas- 
ures concerning  internal  improve- 
ments, 317-326;  Mormons  voted  for, 
347;  nominated  for  governor,  288- 
290;  on  practice  of  hoarding  pro- 
duce, 390;  quoted,  385,429 

Fordham,  Elias  Pym,  15,  19,  24 

Forman,  Colonel  Ferris,  29411,  401,  402 

Forquer,  George,  122,  I42n,  237,  316; 
advised  against  Edwards'  senatorial 
ambitions  in  1830,  134;  altered  canal 
bill,  201 ;  attacked  Edwards  under 
name  of  "Tyro,"  IIO-IH,  112;  be- 
came leader  of  Springfield  clique, 
149;  canal  proposal  of,  1980;  death 
of,  246;  defeated  for  congress,  1828, 
127-128 ;  elected  attorney-general, 
129;  established  Jackson  paper,  132; 
hostile  to  May,  246 ;  method  of  man- 
aging a  campaign,  136-137;  pro- 
posed classification  of  public  lands 
by,  127;  railroad  scheme,  206-207, 
209 

Forsythe,  Thomas,  1530 


Foster,  Charles  A.,  351 
Foster,  Robert  D.,  351 
Foster,    William    P.,    member    of    su- 
preme court,  35 
Four  Lakes,  167 
Fox,  see  Sauk  and  Fox 
Fox  river,  27,  197,  198,  375,  398,  420 
Francis,  Simeon,  178,  204,  300 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  20 
Franklin  county,  voted  for  convention, 

89 
Freeman,    Jonathan,    Birkbeck    wrote 

under  name  of,  87-88 
Freeport,  192 
French,   7,   267;    Catholics,   422,   423; 

influence  of,  5;  slave  rights  of,  70, 

77;  slaves  of,  49,  50,  379 
French,    Augustus    C.,    29411;    elected 

governor,    301-302;    nominated    for 

governor,  325 
Friends  of  Humanity,  opposed  slavery, 

81 
Fry,    Colonel    Jacob,    325;    in    Black 

Hawk  War,  165 
Fulton  county,  Son,  299;  settlement  in, 

174,    178;    taxation    in,    64;    voted 

against  convention,  89 

Gaines,  General  Edmund  P.,  158 

Gale,  George  W.,  436-437 

Galena,  132,  189,  191,  192,  203,  209, 
220,  270,  280,  423 ;  branch  bank  at, 
305;  Catholic  paper  of,  29;  commer- 
cial importance,  190;  land  sales  in, 
176;  lead  mines  at,  152,  155,  308; 
mission  opened  at,  27;  school  at,  22. 
See  Peoria 

Galena  and  Chicago  Union  railroad, 
see  transportation 

Gales,  Joseph,  98 

Galesburg,  settlement  at,  179 

Galesburg  Female  Seminary,  see  edu- 
cation 

Gallatin,  Albert,  1420 

Gallatin  county,  50,  73,  94,  112,  212, 
220,  287,  324;  attitude  toward  slav- 
ery in,  85-86;  settlement  in,  2;  voted 
for  convention,  89 

Gallatin  saline,  84 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  370,  372,  382 

Gaston,  G.  T.,  374 

Gatewood,  William  J.,  2O9n,  220,  234, 

254 

George  IV,  20 

Georgetown   University,  see  education 
Germans,   26m;    antagonism   of,    394- 
395;    attitude   toward   new  constitu- 
tion, 408 ;    Catholics,  422,  423 ;   ex- 


462 


INDEX 


tensive  settlement  of,  391-396;  in 
Mexican  War,  400;  Lutherans,  424. 
See  population 

German-Swiss,  392n.     See  population 

Germany,  391 

Gillespie,  Joseph,  130,  311 

Gilman,  Winthrop  S.,  305 

Godfrey,  Benjamin,  305 

Godfrey,  Gilman  and  Company,  304, 
309-310,  368 

Goldsmith,  Oliver,  21 

Goodell,  William,  374 

Gooding,  William,  326 

Government,  description  and  discus- 
sion of,  33-51 ;  German  influence  on, 
393 ;  legislation  affecting  finance, 
52-69;  the  new  constitution,  1847, 
407-409. 

Grammar,  John,  303 

Grand  Detour,  177 

Grand  Rapids,  42 

Grant,  Alexander  F.,  129,  132,  147 

Gratiot,  Fort,  i7in 

Graves,  William,  276 

Graves-Cilley  duel,  276 

Great  Britain,  see  England 

Great  Lakes,  see  transportation 

Great  Wabash  river,  42,  213 

Great  Western  Mail  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Green,  Bowling,  238 

Green,  Duff,  122,  124,  133,  138,  299 

Green,  Peter,  205,  218 

Greene  county,  3,  30,  112,  173,  214, 
218,  254 

Greenup,  William  C.,  138 

Greenville,  30 

Gregory  XVI,  Pope,  424 

Gridley,  Asahel,  311 

Griggs,   Manning,   and  Company,   189 

Griggs,  Weld  and  Company,  305,  309 

Griggsville,  420 

Grosvenor,  Mason,  437 

Gulf  of  Mexico,  331,  401 

Hacker,  John  S.,  140,  226,  249 

Haiti,  49 

Hall,  James,  103,  131 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  183 

Hamilton,  William  S.,  196 

Hamilton  county,  47,  89 

Hancock  county,  203,  294,  325,  356, 
357;  settlement  in,  174;  Smith's  de- 
scendants in,  3620 

Hansen,  Nicholas,  deposed  by  Shaw, 
78-80,  173 ;  Warren  enemy  of,  82 

Hanson,  George  H.,  324 


Hardin,  John  J.,  301,  302,  311,  380, 
402;  colonel  in  Mexican  War,  401; 
congressional  candidate,  293,  294; 
killed  in  Mexican  War,  406;  sent  to 
disperse  Mormon  plunderers,  357 

Harkness,  E.,  220 

Harlan,  Justin,  294 

Harris,  John,  119 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  48,  70,  278 ; 
death  of,  271 ;  elected  president,  270; 
inaugural  address  of,  272;  Mormons 
supported,  344;  presidential  cam- 
paign 1836,  236,  239-241;  presiden- 
tial campaign  1840,  265-270;  treaty 
of,  with  Sauk  and  Fox,  153 

Hartford,  262 

Havana,  393n 

Hayne,  Robert,  185 

Hedstrom,  Jonas,  399 

Hedstrom,  Olaf,  399 

Henderson,  John,  294 

Hendricks,  William,  122 

Hennepin,  174,  217,  370 

Henry,  John,  2O9n 

Henry,  A.  G.,  286 

Henry,  General  James  D.,  guberna- 
torial candidate,  145 ;  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  165-166,  167,  168,  170 

Henry,  John,  238,  242,  254 

Henry  county,  settlement  in,  174,  178, 
179;  Swedish  settlement  in,  399; 
temperance  in,  426 

Herndon,  Archer  G.,  149,  275,  286,  289 

Hicks,  Stephen  G.,  281 

Higbee,  Chauncey  L.,  351 

Higbee,  Francis  M.,  351 

Hilgard,  Theodor,  392 

Hill,  Isaac,  275 

Hill  Prairie,  373,  375 

Hillsboro,  i43n,  213,  214,  221,  424 

Hoge,  Joseph  P.,  294,  329,  331;  Mor- 
mons voted  for,  347,  357;  on  Wil- 
mot  proviso,  381 

Hubbard,  Adolphus,  defeated  for  gov- 
ernor, ii i ;  quoted  on  slave  labor, 
85-86 

Hunt,  Thomas,  238 

Huron,  217 

Huron,  Lake,  206 

Huron  territory,  138 

Illinois  and  Michigan  canal,  see  trans- 
portation 

Illinois,  Bank  of,  see  banking 

Illinois  Central  railroad,  see  trans- 
portation 

Illinois  College,  see  education 


INDEX 


463 


Illinois  river,  26,  153,  173,  197,  205, 
3*5i  376,  396;  commercial  impor- 
tance of,  12,  191;  fur  trade  on,  3; 
immigration  across,  152;  improve- 
ment of,  175,  192,  194,  198,  206,  207, 
208,  209n,  212,  331,  322;  railroad  on, 
213;  settlement  south  of,  177-178 

Illiopolis,  204,  290,  291 

Immigration,  53,  218,  233,  25611,  260, 
26in;  affected  by  land  policy,  184- 
185;  English,  12-15;  extent  of  for- 
eign, 386,  390-400;  from  eastern 
states,  178-179;  general  movement  in 
state,  173-178;  northern  and  southern 
movement  of,  7 ;  to  Chicago,  388 

Indenture,  see  slavery 

Independents,  29 

Indiana,  14,  26,  71,  101,  196,  232,  332, 
333;  Chicago  market  for,  389;  land 
sales  in,  174-175 

Indiana,  State  Bank  of,  see  banking 

Indiana  territory,  94 

Indian  creek,   165 

Indians,  2,  32,  184,  264,  269;  Black 
Hawk  War,  158-172;  Catholics,  422, 
423;  Jackson's  policy  toward,  115, 
141,  142;  location  of  in  1818,  3;  re- 
moved from  their  lands,  172;  settle- 
ment in  lands  of,  151-157,  173; 
Walker  missionary  to,  27;  whigs' 
policy  toward,  260 

Ingersoll,  Ralph  I.,  n6n 

Ingham,  Samuel  D.,  favored  Kinney, 
133 

Internal  improvements,  see  transpor- 
tation 

Iowa,  327;  Black  Hawk  ready  to  re- 
turn to,  162;  hostile  to  Mormons, 
352;  Sauk  removed  to,  158,  159; 
Sauk  return  to,  171,  172 

Ireland,  396,  423,  424 

Irish,  391;  Catholics,  422,  423;  in 
Mexican  War,  400;  settlement  of, 
396-397;  size  of  vote  of,  260.  See 
population 

Irvine,  J.,  224 

Isacks,  Jacob  C.,  n6n 

Jackson,  Andrew,  92,  109,  112,  187,  207, 
208,  254,  264,  267,  270,  278,  284,  292, 
327i  338;  accused  of  deserting  prin- 
ciples, 262;  attitude  toward  internal 
improvements  and  tariff,  24in;  bank 
policy,  242-245,  303,  308 ;  characteri- 
zation of,  114-115,  262;  Edwards 
supported,  139;  elected  president  in 
1828,  123;  followers  of,  236-247; 
founder  of  democratic  party,  251- 


252;  Indian  policy  of,  1510,  152;  in- 
fluence of  in  local  politics,  124-135, 
*36»  J39»  14°>  I47~I49;  issues  in  cam- 
paign 1828,  116-123;  opposed  Dun- 
can 1833,  144-145;  party  of,  split  into 
cliques,  138;  policies  of,  141-143; 
presidential  chances  for,  106;  re- 
ceived plurality  vote  in  1825,  115; 
strength  of,  188 ;  Van  Buren's  al- 
leged influence  over,  146;  votes  cast 
for,  107 

Jackson  county,  89,  219 

Jacksonian  democracy,  see  politics 

Jacksonville,  145,  20611,  256,  272,  419, 
420,  438,  439;  branch  bank  at,  305; 
proposed  capital  site,  202,  203,  204, 
205 ;  school  for  blind  at,  432 ;  teach- 
ers' convention  at,  432 

Jacksonville  Female  Seminary,  see 
education 

Jansonists,  see  Swedes 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  115,  119,  151,  I53n, 
1 60 

Jefferson  county,  89 

Jenner,  Elisha,  437 

Jersey  county,  369 

Job,  Archibald,  275 

Jo  Daviess  county,  174,  290 

Johnson,  Richard  M.,  240 

Johnson,  James,  connected  with  Bank 
of  Edwardsville,  55;  member  of  Ed- 
wards faction,  92 

Johnson,  Richard  M.,  147,  149,  26in; 
candidate  for  vice  president,  139- 
140,  240,  254;  connected  with  Bank 
of  Edwardsville,  55;  member  of  Ed- 
wards faction,  92 ;  presidential  can- 
didate, 275-276 

Johnson  county,  89,  425 

Joliet,  260,  396,  422 

Jones,  Michael,  55 

Jubilee  College,  see  education 

Kanawha,  66 

Kane,  Elias  Kent,  34,  84,  96,  97,  123, 
128,  133,  134,  139,  143,  144,  149,  279; 
became  Jackson  supporter,  124;  char- 
acterization and  history  of,  94-95 ; 
Cook  defeated,  103 ;  defeated  for 
congress  on  slavery  issue,  93 ;  de- 
feated McLean,  108;  elected  senator, 
90;  elected  senator  1824,  124-125; 
favored  Crawford,  106;  influence  of, 
137;  influence  over  McLean,  126-127; 
intersted  in  Jackson  press,  117;  mem- 
ber of  anti-Edwards  faction,  94;  po- 
sition on  tariff,  141 ;  senatorial  can- 
didate 1830,  137-138;  sought  align- 


464 


INDEX 


ment  with  Edwards,  138;  supported 
Benton's  bill,  121,  122;  supported 
Duncan,  127 

Kane  county,  380 

Kankakee  river,  195 

Kaskaskia,  2,  30,  57,  61,  82,  84,  419; 
bank  chartered  at,  55;  land  office 
at,  4;  land  sales  in,  5,  176;  Menard 
Academy  at,  433;  proposed  as  state 
capital,  50-51;  school  at,  22;  stage 
line  to,  10 

Kaskaskia  river,  3,  50,  210,  213 

Kelley,  James,  46 

Kendall,  Amos,  242 

Kendall  county,  380 

Kent,  Aratus,  22 

Kentucky,  70,  88,  92,  253,  405,  421,  422, 
429;  circulation  of  bank  notes  from, 
52;  Edwards  politician  in,  93;  stock 
in  Bank  of  Edwardsville,  55 

Keokuk,  155-156,  171 

Kickapoo,  3 

Kickapoo  prairie,  176 

Kimmel,  Singleton  H.,  Jackson  man, 
124,  132,  133 

Kinney,  William  C.,  59,  112,  123,  125, 
126,  128,  139,  143,  147,  J48,  237,  247. 
249,  250,  297,  298,  308,  402;  became 
Jackson  supporter,  124;  candidate 
for  governor  1833,  144,  145-146; 
characterization  and  history  of,  130- 
131;  deserted  Edwards  faction,  94; 
favored  Crawford,  106 ;  guberna- 
torial campaign  of  1830,  129,  130- 
134;  hostile  to  canal,  i46n;  influence 
of,  137;  interested  in  Jackson  press, 
117;  member  of  Edwards  faction, 
92;  opinion  on  railroads,  ^217;  op- 
posed Sunday  school  union,  425; 
recommended  governor  of  Huron 
territory,  138 ;  relation  of,  with  bank, 
61;  senatorial  candidate  1824,  124- 
125;  supported  Duncan,  127 

Kinzie,  John  H.,  422n 

Kirby,  William,  437,  438 

Kirtland,  Ohio,  Mormons  in,  343 

Kitchell,  Joseph,  48,  97,  294;  opposed 
State  Bank,  57-58;  senatorial  candi- 
date, 124-125 

Kitchell,  Wickliffe,  57,  294 

Knox  county,  176,  203  ;  college  in,  437; 
settlement  in,  174,  178;  Swedish  set- 
tlement in,  399 

Knox  Manual  Labor  College,  see  edu- 
cation 

Knoxville,  427 

Koerner,  Gustave,  250,  26in,  276,  295, 
297,  378,  4oon,  402,  408 ;  elected  to 


legislature,  395;  German  immigrant, 
392;  leader  of  Germans,  393-395 

Kopfli,  392n 

Koshkonong,  Fort,  167 

Koshkonong,  Lake,  164,  166 

Labor,  Birkbeck's  opinion  on  slavery 
and,  88-89;  large  number  of  Irish 
laborers,  396 ;  need  of  slave  labor, 
73-74,  84-85;  scarcity  of,  15 

Lacon,  173 

Ladies  of  Visitation,  Convent  of,  see 
education 

La  Grange,  178 

Lake  county,  300,  330,  423 

Land,  see  public  lands 

Lane,  Levin,  238 

Lane,  William,  218 

Lane  College,  438 

Lanphier,  Charles  H.,  299 

La  Salle,  212;  Catholic  schools  in,  433 ; 
Irish  settlement  at,  396 

La  Salle  county,  Catholic  mission  in, 
423;  Germans  in,  393n;  Norwegian 
settlement  in,  398 ;  settlement  in,  178 

"  Latin  farmers,"  of  Belleville,  392-393 

Latter  Day  Saints,  see  Mormons 

Law,  William,  351,  353 

Law,  Wilson,  351 

Lawless,  Luke  Edward,  365 

Lawrence,  Abbott,  323 

Leary,  Albert  G.,  229,  231,  281,  301 

Leavitt,  David,  325 

Lebanon  Seminary,  see  education 

Lecompte,  Joseph,  n6n 

Leland,  399 

Lemen,  James,  28,  29,  416 

Lemen,  Moses,  415 

Lexington,  414 

Lilburne,  John,  373 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  87,  221,  240,  267, 
285,  286,  292,  293,  301,  311,  344;  at- 
titude toward  Mexican  War,  404- 
405 ;  congressional  candidate,  293 ; 
opinion  on  projected  railroad,  205- 
206 ;  realizes  advantage  of  party  or- 
ganization, 250;  voted  against  anti- 
abolition  resolutions,  364 

Lincoln-Douglas  debates,  86 

Linden  Wood,  434 

Linder,  Usher  F.,  367,  368,  370 

Linn,  William  J.,  291,  300 

Lisbon,  399 

Little  Fort,  300,  411 

Little  Wabash  river,  proposed  canal 
on,  42;  railroad  on,  213 

Livingston  county,  330 


INDEX 


465 


Lockwood,  Samuel  D.,  126,  136,  137, 
144,  215,  279,  280;  defeated  for  sen- 
ate 1824,  I25;  justice,  35,  109,  125; 
opinion  on  slavery,  377-378 ;  sena- 
torial candidate,  1822,  97;  senatorial 
candidate  1828,  126 

Logan,  John  A.,  219,  406 

Logan,  Stephen  T.,  293 

Logan  county,  179 

Logansport,  2O9n 

London,  220,  224,  225,   226,   261,  267, 

274,  323 

Long,  Enoch,  368 

Long,  Major  Stephen,  195 

Long  Grove,  420 

Louisiana,  43,  197 

Louisiana  purchase,  403 

Louisville,  10,  209 

Louisville  and  Portland  canal,  see 
transportation 

Lovejoy,  Elijah  Parish,  418;  anti- 
slavery  activities  of,  364-370;  killed, 
368 

Lovejoy,  Owen,  372,  373,  379 

Lowell,  370,  371 

Lower  Alton,  213 

Lundy,  Benjamin,  370-371 

Lutherans,  424 

Lyman,  Alvan,  178 

Lyman,  Amasa,  353 

Lyman,  Ezra,  178 

Lyndon,  176 

Lyons,  179 

Macalister,  Charles,  229,  231,  314,  321, 
322,  324,  326 

Mackinaw,  3,  178,  194,  2o6n 

Mackinaw  and  Bloomington  railroad, 
see  transportation 

Macomb,  174 

Macon  county,  203,  207 

Macoupin  county,  3,  207,  370 

Madison,  James,  75 

Madison  county,  47,  173,  207,  239,  4oon ; 
agricultural  society  in,  16;  Coles 
sued  on  behalf  of,  48 ;  conventionists 
organized  in,  81;  German  settlement 
in,  392;  German-Swiss  colony  in, 
392n ;  Sunday  schools  in,  30 

Magniac,  Jardine  and  Company,  323 

Magnolia,  173 

Maine,  270,  328,  365 

Maiden,  156,  157 

Manufactures,  difficulties  of  transport- 
ing, ii ;  extent  of,  8;  issue  of  protec- 
tion of  in  1828,  120;  lack  of,  among 
Mormons,  348-349  ;  Peoria's  resources 
for,  203;  relation  of  agriculture  to, 


105;  Rush's  views  on,  121-122; 
slavery  influenced  output  of,  89 

March,  Enoch  C.,  190 

Marietta  College,  438 

Marion  county,  5,  89 

Marks,  William,  354 

Marshall,  John,   55,  93,   HI,   112,   312 

Marshall  county,  174 

Mason  county,  393n 

Masonry,  22 

Massac  county,  428-429 

Massac,  Fort,  332 

Massachusetts,  27,  i78n,  262,  323 

Mather,  Thomas,  65,  137,  139,  i42n, 
224,  304,  305 

Maumee  river,  195,  196,  424n 

Maury,  Lieutenant,  329 

Maxwell,  George  W.  P.,  246 

May,  William  L.,  138,  147,  148,  149, 
237,  249,  250,  260,  286,  303 ;  attempt 
to  drive  out  of  democratic  party, 
246-248 ;  congressional  nomination 
of,  255;  financial  policy  of,  245-246 

McClernand,  John  A.,  281,  282,  299, 
314,  321,  329;  elected  to  congress, 
294;  internal  improvement  interests 
or>  33°.  331*  332»  333.  °n  Wilmot 
proviso,  381 ;  sued  for  office  of  secre- 
tary of  state,  279 

McConnell,  Murray,  301 

McCormick,   Andrew,   364 

McCormick,  Cyrus,  384 

McDonough,  270 

McDonough  county,  203,  357 

McDougall,  James  A.,  294 

McDuffie,  George  E.,  n 

McFatridge,  William,  61,  78 

McKee,  William  R.,  406 

McKendree,  Bishop  William,  436 

McKendree  College,  see  education 

McLaughlin,  Robert  K.,  108,  144,  145 

McLean,  John,  96,  97,  123,  126,  129, 
140;  became  Jackson  supporter,  124; 
connected  with  Bank  of  Illinois,  55; 
Cook  defeated,  103 ;  Cook  succeeded, 
71;  death  of,  137;  defeated  by  Kane, 
108 ;  elected  representative,  95; 
elected  senator  1828,  127;  favored 
Crawford,  106 ;  first  representative, 
70;  Jackson  man,  132;  member  of 
anti-Edwards  faction,  94;  opposed 
State  Bank  of  1821,  58;  senatorial 
candidate  1824,  124-125;  voted  for 
Missouri  compromise,  72,  73 

McLean  county,  330 

McLeod,  Alexander,  328 

McMahon,  Father,  423 


INDEX 


McRoberts,  Samuel,  48,  129,  132,  140, 
246,  249,  250,  282,  289 

Memphis,  331 

Memphis  -  Charleston  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Menard,  Pierre,  5,  148,  434 

Menard  Academy,  see  education 

Menard  county,  406 

Mendon,  357 

Menominee,  159,  160,  169 

Meredith,  Samuel  C.,  132 

Meredosia,  212,  290 

Methodist  church,  29,  131,  399;  atti- 
tude toward  slavery,  81,  375-376; 
growth  of,  414-415,  417;  organiza- 
tion and  influence  of,  23-27;  school 
of,  435-436 

Mexico,  Edwards  appointed  minister 
to,  99,  103 

Mexican  War,  299,  327,  337,  338,  381, 
400-406 

Michigan,  165,  174-175,  191 

Michigan  City,  291 

Michigan,  Lake,  194,  201,  206,  331 

Military  Bounty  tract,  5,  214,  238,  255, 
294»  334>  426,  44° 5  Hansen  and 
Shaw  from,  78 ;  Indians  in,  3 ;  Mor- 
mons in,  340;  settlement  in,  173-174; 
size  of  claim  in,  182;  speculation  in, 
175-176;  taxation  in,  64 

Miller,  399 

Mills,  Benjamin,  147 

Mining,  lead,  92,  152,  155,  190,  308, 
310,  357 

Minor,  Gideon,  364 

Mission,  399 

Mission  Institute,  372 

Mississippi,  174-175,  186,  197 

Mississippi  and  Wabash  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Mississippi  and  Wabash  Union  rail- 
road, see  transportation 

Mississippi  river,  5,  26,  129,  151,  153, 
166,  169,  170,  i72n,  175,  203,  359,  401, 
417,  42411,  433;  Black  Hawk  willing 
to  cross,  162,  169;  commercial  im- 
portance of,  6,  n,  52,  105,  191,  192, 
195,  205,  206,  209,  210,  218,  219,  220, 
310,  333;  Fox  lived  on,  154;  German 
immigration  to,  391,  392;  Indian  re- 
moval across,  152,  156,  157,  158,  171; 
settlement  along,  2-3 

Mississippi,  Springfield  and  Carrollton, 
see  transportation 

Missouri,  26,  30,  81,  96,  121,  185,  328, 
380,  434,  436;  Coles  held  slaves  in, 
76;  connection  of  slavery  with  ad- 
mission of,  70,  71,  72,  73 ;  Germans 


settled  in,  391,  392;  land  cessions  in, 
153;  land  sales  in,  174;  Lovejoy  ad- 
vocated antislavery  society  in,  367 ; 
Mormons  driven  from,  343,  345,  347- 
348,  350,  352 

Missouri,  Bank  of,  see  banking 

Missouri  compromise,  see  Missouri 

Missouri  river,  356 

Mitchell,  James  C.  (of  Tennessee), 
n6n 

Mitchell,  Thomas  R.  (of  South  Caro: 
lina),  n6n 

Mitchell,  Dr.  J.  W.  S.,  385 

Monmouth,  174,  176,  192,  427 

Monroe,  James,  95,  99,  119,  1510 

Monroe  county,  80,  400 

Monroe  Doctrine,  105 

Montgomery  county,  81,  90,  232 

Monticello  Female  Seminary,  see  edu- 
cation 

Moore,  James  B.,  345 

Moore,  James  H.,  76 

Moore,  John,  287 

Moore,  Risdon,  77 

Morgan,  James  D.,  406 

Morgan  county,  30,  80,  89,  112,  173, 
202,  203,  214,  255 

Mormons,  288 ;  Bennett's  charges 
against,  345-347 ;  doctrine  of,  341 ; 
English  converts  of,  397n;  hostility 
toward,  350,  351-352;  remove  to 
Utah,  362;  Smith  leader  of,  341-343; 
split  in  church  of,  351;  Turner  op- 
posed, 440;  war  upon,  355-361; 
Young  becomes  leader  of,  353-355 

Morris,  Isaac  N.,  233 

Morris,  William,  413 

Morris,  399 

Mt.  Auburn,  178 

Mt.  Carmel,  289,  305 

Mt.  Carmel  and  Alton  railroad,  set 
transportation 

Mt.  Vernon,  218 

Murphy,  John  H.,  364 

Murphy,  Richard,  229,  231,  301 

Naperville,  420 

Naples,  191 

Nattestad,  Ansted,  398 

Nauvoo,  192,  440;  anti-Mormons 
marched  on,  360,  361;  English  at, 
397°;  growth  of,  348-350;  militia 
guard  in,  358;  Mormon  settlement 
at,  340-362;  secession  in,  351 

Newberry,  Oliver,  190 

Newberry,  Walter,  270 

Newby,  Colonel  W.  B.,  401 


INDEX 


467 


New  England,  22,   185,  189,  309,  323, 

365,  366,   369,    390,   4con,   419,   420, 
431,   438,   439;    circulation    of   bank 
notes   from,    52;    immigration    from, 
178;    Mormon   converts    from,    342; 
status  of  Yankees  from,  18 

New  Hampshire,  178 

New  Harmony,  9,   14 

New  Haven,  418,  419 

New  Mexico,  403 

New  Orleans,  49 ;  commercial  impor- 
tance of,  ii-i2,  89,  120,  190,  191,  195, 
197,  209,  306,  387;  importance  of,  in 
state  finance,  52-53 ;  Jackson  exe- 
cuted militiamen  at,  119-120 

Newspapers,  i,  17,  92,  147;  advertise- 
ments in,  189-190;  alignment  in 
presidential  campaign  of  1836,  237, 
239 ;  alignment  on  bank  policies,  244- 
246,  248 ;  attack  on  Crawford  in,  98 ; 
attitude  toward  internal  improve- 
ment scheme,  223 ;  attitude  toward 
Lincoln,  405 ;  attitude  toward  Steph- 
enson,  249-250;  bank's  influence 
over,  259 ;  contents  and  circulation 
of,  20-21;  discuss  canal  project,  195; 
discuss  new  constitution,  407-408, 
409;  discuss  repudiation,  232;  dis- 
cuss tariff  question,  120;  discuss 
tariff,  141 ;  economic  conditions  re- 
vealed by,  8-9;  enthusiasm  for  Jack- 
son in,  117-118;  fight  against  Regis- 
ter, 298;  Germans  established,  393, 
394;  in  congressional  election  of 
1844,  296;  influence  of,  in  elections, 
256;  influence  of,  in  gubernatorial 
election  1830,  131-132;  influence  of, 
on  slavery  and  convention  issue,  73, 
74-75,  .80,  81,  82,  84-85,  86;  issue  of 
canal  in,  230-231;  Jackson  press  es- 
tablished, 117;  on  slavery  issue,  363- 
364,  367-368,  370,  371,  381,  382;  pro- 
posals of,  for  rehabilitation,  233-234; 
Reynolds'  policy  announced  in,  134; 
support  of,  for  Duncan,  144-148; 
Turner's,  439-441;  type  of,  411-413 

New  York,  34,  36,  38,  43,  52,  70,  71,  94, 

Il8,  178,  179,  196,  198,  213,  220,  233, 
239,  241,  275,  333,  340,  342 

New  York  and  Erie  railroad,  see  trans- 
portation 

New   York    City,    190,    191,    224,   225, 

366,  388,  398,  399,  436 
Noble,  James,  101 
North  Bend,  268 

Northern  Cross  railroad,  see  transpor- 
tation 


Northwest  ordinance,  see  Ordinance  of 
1787 

Northwest  Territory,  269 

Norway,  Illinois,  Norwegian  settle- 
ment in,  399 

Norway,   religious  persecution  in,   398 

Norwegians,  Lutherans,  424;  settle- 
ment of,  398-399.  See  population 

Oakley,  Charles,  224,  225,  322,  325 

Ogden,  William  B.,  230 

Ogle,  Charles,  267 

Ogle,  Jacob,  advocated  suffrage  for 
Negroes,  49 

Ogle  county,  290 

Oglesby,  Richard  J.,  406 

Ohio,  70,  71,  173,  196,  329,  421 ;  circu- 
lation of  bank  notes  from,  52 ;  immi- 
gration from,  178 ;  land  sales  in,  174- 
175;  Mormons  in,  343 

Ohio  river,  75,  196,  428;  commercial 
importance  of,  6,  10-11,  2o6n,  207, 
212,  217,  219,  330,  331,  387;  Cook 
suggested  improvement  of,  105 ;  set- 
tlement along,  2 

Old  Colony  Brotherhood,  i78n 

O'Meara,  Father  Bernard,  423n 

Oquawka,  192,  427 

O'Rear,  William,  214 

Ordinance  of  1787,  discussion  over 
slavery  provisions  in,  70,  71,  76-77, 
86,  377,  378 

Oregon,  177,  192,  277;  boundary,  327- 
33°,  334,  336,  338;  possible  Mormon 
location  in,  356 

Ottawa,  159,  177,  191,  192,  201,  209, 
254,  389,  .399,  400 

Overton,  Richard,  373 

Pacific  ocean,  184 

Palestine,  5,  84,  176,  208,  386 

Palmer,  Dent,  and  McKillop,  274 

Palmer,  J.  Horsley,  274 

Palmyra,   59,   60 

Palmyra,  New  York,  340 

Paris,  208 

Parker,  Daniel,  28 

Paullin,  Parven,  364 

Paul,  Rene,  196 

Payne,  General  Duval,  55 

Pearson,  John,  229,  230,  231 

Pecatonica  river,  165,  192 

Peck,  Ebenezer,  230,  231,  275,  278,  301, 
310,  314,  316;  elected  justice  of  su- 
preme court,  283 ;  favored  conven- 
tion system,  254;  history  of,  282-283; 
representative,  229 


468 


INDEX 


Peck,  John  Mason,  accused  of  anti-con- 
vention support,  82 ;  activity  and  in- 
fluence of,  27-28,  31;  authorized  to 
write  history  of  state,  412 ;  Baptist 
leader,  415,  416;  disliked  Lovejoy, 
366,  368-369;  quoted,  90;  seminary 
of,  22,  434;  societies  founded  by,  30 

Peerson,  Kleng,  398 

Pekin,  191 

Pekin  and  Bloomington  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Pekin  and  Tremont  railroad,  see  trans- 
portation 

Pekin,  Bloomington,  and  Wabash  rail- 
road, see  transportation 

Pennsylvania,  52 

Pennsylvania  Dutch,  391 

Peoria,  3,  191,  217,  247,  255,  302,  383, 
389,  419;  Catholics  in,  423;  Irish  in, 
396;  laid  out,  173;  mission  at,  26; 
proposed  capital  site  at,  202,  203, 
204;  Scientific  and  Historical  Soci- 
ety at,  412 ;  temperance  in,  426,  427 

Peoria  county,  176,  203,  430,  436 

Peoria-Galena  trail,  174 

Peoria,  Wabash  and  Warsaw  railroad, 
see  transportation 

Perry,  393n 

Peru,  191,  396 

Philadelphia,  175 ;  antislavery  tracts 
from,  83;  Peck  studied  in,  27;  trade 
with,  9,  ii,  53,  306,  387,  388 

Phillips,  Joseph  B.,  elected  judge,  95; 
member  of  anti-Edwards  faction,  94; 
member  of  supreme  court,  35;  pro- 
slavery  candidate  for  governor,  74- 

75,  76 

Pickett,  William,  361 

Pike  county,  78,  173  ;  Germans  in,  393n; 
settlement  in,  174;  taxation  in,  64; 
voted  against  convention,  89 

Pittsburg,  ii,  53,  75,  191,  205,  353,  355 

Pleasant  Plains,  433 

Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  413 

Poinsett,  Joel  R.,  266 

Politics,  i ;  alignments  in  gubernatorial 
election  1830,  128-135;  alignment  of 
factions  in  senatorial  election  1824, 
124-126 ;  alignment  of  factions  for 
senatorial  election  1828,  126-127; 
alignment  of  factions  in  congression- 
al election  1828,  127-128;  amendment 
to  change  method  of  presidential  vot- 
ing, 115-116;  and  internal  improve- 
ments, 198,  201,  205,  212,  215,  216- 
224;  and  Mexican  War,  337-338,  402, 
403-404;  and  new  bank,  303,  305, 
307-308,  310-312,  313-315;  and  re- 


moval of  capital  to  Springfield,  201- 
205 ;  beginnings  of  whig  and  demo- 
cratic parties,  136,  137,  140-143; 
canal  issue  in  1834,  198-202;  canal 
issue  in  1840-1841,  229-231;  congres- 
sional elections  1834,  147-149;  con- 
gressional elections  1841,  284-285; 
congressional  elections  1843  and 
1844,  293-297;  convention  struggle  of 
1823  due  to  slavery  issue,  77-91 ;  de- 
mand for  repudiation,  232-233  ;  demo- 
crats seek  German  vote,  394-395;  de- 
scription and  members  of  anti-Ed- 
wards faction,  92,  94-95 ;  description 
and  members  of  Edwards  faction,  92- 
94;  discussion  of  whig  and  demo- 
cratic parties,  256-264;  disintegration 
of  faction  1830-1834,  137-149;  dissat- 
isfaction in  whig  ranks,  271-274; 
elections  in  1818,  95;  existence  of 
two  factions,  92 ;  factions  not  united 
on  convention  measure,  90;  fear  of 
canal  controlling,  197;  gubernatorial 
election  1822,  74-76;  gubernatorial 
election  1834,  143-147;  gubernatorial 
election  1838,  249-250;  gubernatorial 
campaign  1841,  285-293;  guberna- 
torial campaign  1846,  301 ;  influence 
of  factions  in  local  elections,  107- 
113;  influence  of  Illinois  factions  in 
presidential  campaign  1824,  97-107; 
influence  of  Jacksonian  democracy  in 
local  elections,  114-135;  interest  in, 
in  1830,  150;  Irish  interest  in,  396; 
issue  over  alien  vote,  26o-26in,  279- 
282;  Jackson's  campaign  1828,  116- 
123;  judiciary  bill,  280-283;  Koerner 
German  leader  in,  393-394;  lack  of 
interest  in  public  lands,  336;  life 
office  issue,  278-279;  Mormon 
strength  in,  343,  344-345,  346,  347, 
351,  356,  359,  361-362;  organization 
of  democratic  party  and  convention 
system,  251-256;  parties  bicker  over 
new  constitution,  407-408 ;  party 
alignment  in  presidential  election 
1832,  139-140;  party  feeling  over 
river  and  harbor  bill,  330-336;  presi- 
dential election  1840,  265-270;  presi- 
dential election  1844,  275-277;  presi- 
dential election  1848,  336,  338-339; 
resume  of  factional  alignment  1818- 
1834,  136;  senatorial  election  1830, 
137-138;  senatorial  election  1832, 
139;  situation  at  beginning  of  guber- 
natorial campaign  1842,  233-235; 
slavery  issue  and,  371-372,  374-375, 
380-382;  slavery  issue  in  congres- 


INDEX 


469 


sional  election  1820,  70-74;  split  in 
democratic  party  on  Texas  and  Ore- 
gon question,  327-330;  Springfield 
clique,  237,  246,  283,  286,  295,  296, 
297,  298,  301,  302;  success  of  conven- 
tion system  of  democratic  party,  249- 
250;  tariff  begins  to  figure  in,  105; 
Turner's  views  on,  440-441 ;  war 
upon  Walters  and  Wentworth,  298- 
301 ;  whigs  and  democrats  divide  on 
land  policy,  183-188;  whigs  and 
democrats  in  election  1836,  236-242; 
whig  opposition  to  Ford's  canal 
measures,  321-326 

Polk,  James  K.,  n6n,  298,  336,  337, 
404;  administration,  327,  329,  330, 
332»  335!  elected,  277;  nominated 
president,  275-277;  vetoed  river  and 
harbor  bill,  333-334 

Pond  Prairie,  420 

Pope,  Nathaniel,  99,  108,  136,  148,  348; 
active  member  of  Edwards  faction, 
92,  93 ;  Browne  chosen  candidate  by, 
76;  defeated  for  senate  1824,  125; 
proposed  Reynolds  as  opponent  to 
Thomas,  97;  senatorial  candidate  in 
1828,  126 

Pope  county,  89,  112,  428,  429 

Population,  197;  affected  by  immigra- 
tion, 390-400;  description  of,  6-7; 
effect  of  land  legislation  upon,  3-5; 
English,  397;  from  183010  1840,  383; 
Galena,  190;  growth  of,  173-179, 
188-193;  in  English  settlement,  15; 
Irish,  396;  number  in  1830,  152; 
number  of  Germans,  393 ;  Scandi- 
navian, 399;  Scotch,  397;  size  and 
location  of  in  1818,  2-3;  consult  dif- 
ferent nationalities 

Potawatomi,  159,  162,  164;  Catholic 
chiefs  of,  422  ;  location  of,  3  ;  Walker 
missionary  to,  27 

Portland,  176 

Portland  and  Louisville  canal,  see 
transportation 

Posey,  General  Alexander,  165 

Post,  Justus,  196 

Postville,  179 

Prairie  du  Chien,  159,  169 

Pratt,  Orson,  346 

Prentice,  Charles,  274,  275 

Prentiss,  Benjamin,  406 

Presbyterian  church,  26,  29,  261 ;  atti- 
tude toward  slavery,  363,  375; 
growth  of  and  connection  with  Con- 
gregationalists,  419-420;  Lovejoy 
member  of,  365;  schools  of,  436-439 

Princeton,  370,  4i8n 


Princeton  Academy,  see  education 

Princeton    Theological    Seminary,    365 

Prophetstown,  161 

Protestants,  261 

Public  lands,  amount  of  sale  of,  174- 
179;  Benton's  policy  toward,  121-123, 
127,  185-188,  264;  Calhoun's  policy 
toward,  187,  336;  Clay's  policy 
toward,  186-187,  2*>8 ;  Crawford's 
policy  toward,  53-54,  56,  98;  Ed- 
wards' policy  toward,  104,  133-134, 
141,  185;  Harrison's  attitude  toward, 
239,  269;  Jackson's  policy  toward, 
188,  243-244,  264;  Lincoln's  sugges- 
tion for  unsold,  221 ;  measures  con- 
cerning 1841-1848,  336-337;  method 
of  sale  of,  3-5,  180-184,  320-321; 
price  of,  74,  88,  179,  182;  Reynolds' 
policy  toward,  276;  speculation,  50- 
51,  53,  69,  104,  134,  173,  174-179,  186, 
187,  188,  192,  194,  201-102,  244; 
Tyler's  policy  toward  272;  Van 
Buren's  policy  toward,  187-188,  241, 
276 ;  whig's  policy  toward,  260 

Pulaski  county,  297 

Putnam  county,  174,  203,  369 

Quakers,  antislavery  tracts  from,  83 ; 
settlement  of  Norwegian,  398 

Quarter,  Bishop  William,  of  Chicago, 
423n,  424 

Quash-quame,   i54n 

Queen  Anne's  War,  184 

Quincy,  189,  206,  209,  210,  212,  250,  352, 
361,  372,  376,  379,  420;  anti-Mormon 
meeting  at,  357;  branch  bank  at, 
305 ;  Catholics  in,  423  ;  land  sales  at, 
175,  176 

Railroads,  see  transportation 

Raith,  Julius  C.,  400 

Ralston,  James  H.,  285,  314 

Randolph,  John,  118 

Randolph  county,  89,  373,  378 

Rapp,  Frederick,  9,  14 

Rattan,  Thomas,  78 

Rawlings,  M.  M.,  225 

Reeve's  Bluff,  51 

Religion,  2;  antislavery  influence  of 
clergy,  81-82;  discussion  of,  23-31; 
growth  of  denominations  1830-1848, 
414-425;  in  English  settlement,  14; 
influence  of,  425-426;  Mormon  sect, 
340-361 ;  persecution  of  Norwegian 
Quakers,  398;  politics  and,  261; 
Turner's,  441 ;  consult  various  de- 
nominations 

Revolutions,  the,  20,  1831,  269,  342,  373 

Reynolds,  John,  62,  112,  126,   144,  225, 


470 


INDEX 


228,  246,  247,  249,  250, 275,  276,  278, 

287,  288,  304,  308,  402 ;  approved  an- 
nexation of  Texas,  327;  boosted 
Belleville,  386;  characterization  and 
history  of,  128,  129-130;  congress- 
man, 284;  defeated  as  justice,  125; 
elected  governor,  134;  elected  to  con- 
gress, 147,  148 ;  gubernatorial  can- 
didate 1830,  128-135;  influence  of, 
137;  influence  on  state  history,  412; 
Irish  immigrant,  396;  member  of 
supreme  court,  35;  policies  of,  in  con- 
gressional race  1834,  147-149;  politi- 
cal overthrow  of,  295,  296-297 ;  pro- 
posed as  gubernatorial  candidate 
1822,  76;  proposed  as  opponent  to 
Thomas,  97,  98 ;  raised  army  for  In- 
dian campaign,  158,  160,  164,  167; 
supported  Duncan,  127;  supported 
Johnson,  140 

Reynolds,  Thomas,  116,  125;  member 
of  supreme  court,  35 

Rhett,  R.  Barnwell,  333 

Richardson,  William  A.,  287,  299 

Rigdon,  Nancy,  346 

Rigdon,  Sidney,  346,  355;  arrested, 
347;  attempted  to  become  Mormon 
leader,  353,  354;  connection  with 
Mormonism,  341 

Riggs,  Romulus,  175 

Ritchie,  Thomas,  335 

Roberts,  Benjamin,  2080 

Roberts,  John  S.,  299 

Robins  Nest,  436 

Robinson,  Alexander,  422 

Robinson,  John  M.,  286;  elected  to 
supreme  court,  283 ;  financial  policy 
of,  245;  senatorial  aspirant,  138; 
supported  Johnson,  i4on 

Rockford,  192 

Rockford  Female  Seminary,  see  edu- 
cation 

Rock  Island,  3,  154,  156,  i72n,  174,  217, 
353 

Rock  Island  county,  174 

Rock  river,  161,  192,  325,  376;  rail- 
road on,  213;  sale  of  land  about, 
176-177;  Sauk  and  Fox  on,  3,  154, 
158,  160,  164,  166,  172 

Rock  Spring,  22,  434 

Rockwell,  Orrin  P.,  348 

Rockwell,  178 

Rocky  Mountains,  184 

Rome,  423,  441 

Rosati,  Bishop,  422,  423,  4240 

Ross,  Lewis  W.,  299 

Rowan,  Stephen  R.,  275,  284 

Ruggles,  Benjamin,  71 


Rush,  Richard,  121 

Rush   Medical    College,   see   education 

Rushville,  174,  192,  202,  206 

Rushville  railroad,  see  transportation 

Russell,  John,  29 

Russia,  75 

Rutland,  399 

Ryan,  Michael,  322,  323,  325 

Rynning,  Ole,  398 

Salem,  411 

Saline,  see  salt  works 

Saline  creek,  42 

Salt  works,  need  of  slave  labor  in,  73- 
74,  84-85,  88 ;  revenue  from,  62,  65- 
66,  68 ;  Reynolds'  proposed  policy 
toward,  131;  settlement  near,  2 

Salu,  22 

Sangamon   county,   42,    104,    149,    202, 

203,  207,   212,   214,   217,   223,  238,   255, 

294»  379.  .419;  Catholics  in,  423;  op- 
position in,  to  Baptists,  28 ;  settle- 
ment in,  5,  173,  178;  secured  loca- 
tion of  capital,  204-205 ;  Sunday 
school  in,  30;  voted  against  conven- 
tion, 89 

Sangamon  river,  42,  173 

Santa  Anna,  337 

Sauk  and  Fox,  174;  aggression  into 
land  of,  155-157;  Black  Hawk  War, 
159-172;  land  treaties  with,  152-154; 
location  of,  3 ;  move  across  Missis- 
sippi, 158;  return  to  Illinois,  159 

Saunders,  Romulus  M.,  n6n 

Savanna,  176,  192 

Scales,  Judge  Walter  B.,  283,  301,  378, 
379 

Schaeffer,  Father  Bernard,  423n 

Schools,  see  education 

Schuyler  county,  174,  203,  2o6n,  357, 
419 

Scotch,  391,  397.     See  population 

Scotch-Irish,  391.    See  population 

Scott,  John,  72 

Scott,  General  Winfield,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  165,  171-172,  339 

Scott  county,  232,  287 

Seaton,  William  W.,  98 

Seminole  War,  114-115 

Semple,  James,  328 ;  attitude  toward 
banks,  307;  elected  to  supreme  court, 
283 

Sexton,  Orval,  324 

Shabonee,  162 

Shaw,  John,  78,  82,  173 

Shawneetown,  30,  57,  58,  123,  147, 
148,  248,  334;  communication  with, 
3,  9,  10,  u,  209,  210,  219;  culture  in, 


INDEX 


19,  23 ;  economic  conditions  in,  7-8 ; 
history  of  bank  at,  55,  56,  59,  60; 
kidnapping  of  slaves  in,  48,  49,  379; 
land  office  at,  4;  land  sales  in,  5, 
176;  salt  works  at,  66.  See  Bank  of 
Illinois 

Shawneetown  and  Alton  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Shelby  county,  207,  287 

Shelbyville,  214 

Shelbyville  and  Alton  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Shields,  James,  250,  276,  295,  308,  379, 
396,  406 

Shoal  creek,  30,  363 

Shurtleff,  Dr.  Benjamin,  435 

Shurtleff  College,  see  education 

Singleton,  James  W.,  360 

Skinner,  Mark,  298 

Slade,  Charles,  144;  elected  to  congress 
1832,  139;  policies  of,  in  congres- 
sional race  1834,  147-148 

Slavery,  105,  240,  265,  268;  antislavery 
argument,  373  ;  attitude  of  new  con- 
stitution toward,  409;  Birkbeck's  at- 
titude toward,  12,  15;  Chase's  atti- 
tude toward,  422 ;  churches'  attitude 
toward,  363,  375-376,  416,  418-421, 
435  ;  Coles'  recommendations  against, 
76-77;  connection  of,  with  Mexican 
War,  402;  contest  affected  canal  bill, 
77;  court  decisions  on  status  of,  377- 
380;  convention  struggle  over  consti- 
tutional article  on,  77-91 ;  democratic 
party  beginning  to  be  split  by,  327, 
336;  Eddy's  proposal  to  admit,  73- 
74;  German  attitude  toward,  392; 
influence  of,  in  congressional  elec- 
tions, 70-73 ;  issue  of,  in  election  for 
governor  in  1822,  75-77;  issue  of,  in 
local  politics,  371-372,  380-381;  issue 
of,  on  parties,  374-375,  380-382; 
Kinney  supposed  to  support,  131; 
laws  and  practices  affecting,  47-50; 
Lovejoy's  press  against,  364-370; 
money  loaned  for  press  to  advocate, 
59;  newspapers  published  against, 
370-371 ;  politics  and,  70-91 ;  rela- 
tion of,  to  tariff,  121 ;  Smith  preached 
against,  343;  tax  collected  on  slaves, 
64;  Turner's  attitude  toward,  440- 
441 

Sloo,  Thomas,  defeated  for  governor, 
in;  opponent  of  Edwards,  109; 
senatorial  candidate,  124-125 

Smith,  George,  313 

Smith,  Hyrum,  342,  346,  352,  353,  354 


Smith,  Joseph,  440;  arrested  on  Mis- 
souri warrant,  347-348,  350;  descen- 
dants of,  live  in  Illinois,  362n; 
founder  and  leader  of  Mormonism, 
340-343,  346,  353,  354;  Mormon 
charges  against,  351;  murdered  in 
Carthage,  352;  presidential  candi- 
date, 351 

Smith,  Robert,  329 ;  elected  to  congress, 
295,  296,  297;  internal  improvement 
interests  of,  330,  331;  on  Wilmot 
proviso,  381 

Smith,  Theophilus  W.,  123,  128,  144, 
215,  278,  279,  304,  305,  310,  311;  be- 
came Jackson  supporter,  124;  candi- 
date for  senate  1828,  126;  deserted 
Edwards  faction,  94;  elected  justice, 
125;  interested  in  Jackson  press,  117; 
interested  in  railroad,  208;  justice 
of  supreme  court,  35 ;  member  of  Ed- 
wards faction,  92 ;  opinion  on  alien 
vote,  280,  281-282;  opinion  on  slav- 
ery, 378;  relation  of  with  bank,  6r; 
resigned  from  supreme  court,  282; 
senatorial  aspirant  1830,  137-138; 
supported  Duncan,  127;  unable  to 
gain  Warren's  support,  82 

Smith,  William,  attempted  to  become 
Mormon  leader,  354-355 

Smith,  Fort,  331 

Snyder,  Adam  W.,  i42n,  249,  345 ; 
death  of,  287;  financial  policy  of, 
245,  246,  247,  248 ;  gubernatorial 
candidate  1838,  250;  managed  card- 
ing machine,  8 ;  nominated  for  gov- 
ernor, 286-289;  policies  of  in  con- 
gressional race  1834,  I47"I48;  pre- 
sented bill  for  reorganization  of  the 
judiciary,  280 

Society,  see  culture 

South  America,  20,  115,  118 

South  Carolina,  n6n 

Southern  Cross  railroad,  see  transpor- 
tation 

Sparta,  375 

Spaulding,  Solomon,  341 

Speculation,  see  public  lands 

Speed,  Joshua  Fry,  286 

Springfield,  30,  i2on,  132,  138,  149,  177, 
191,  206,  207,  209,  210,  250,  269,  282, 
303,  318;  Baker  elected  to  congress 
from,  293,  294;  Catholics  in,  423; 
constitutional  convention  met  in,  407; 
greets  Mexican  War  heroes,  406; 
head  office  of  bank  at,  305 ;  land 
sales  in,  5,  175,  176;  made  state  cap- 
ital, 204;  proposed  capital  site,  202, 
203 ;  stage  line  to,  10 


472 


INDEX 


Springfield-Alton  railroad,  see  trans- 
portation 

Springfield  clique,  see  politics 
Springfield,  Mississippi  and  Carrollton 

railroad,  see  transportation 
Spring,  Giles,  294 
Stark  county,  174,  4000 
State  Bank,  see  banking 
St  Charles,  367 
St.    Clair    county,    89,    329,    402,   431; 

anti-conventionists  organized  in,  81 ; 

antislavery    society   formed    in,    80; 

Germans     in,      392,     400;      Sunday 

schools  in,  30 
St.  Cyr,  Irenaeus  Mary,  priest  sent  to 

Chicago,  423 
Stebbins,    Henry,    229,    231,    314,    321, 

322,  324,  326 
Stephenson,      Benjamin,      controversy 

over  letter  from,  100-101,   102,  103 ; 

member    of    Edwards    faction,    92; 

president  of  Bank  of  Edwardsville, 

56 

Stephenson,  James  W.,  became  a  demo- 
crat, 140;  candidate  for  governor, 
249 

Stephenson  county,  290 

Stephenson,  Fort,  107 

Sterne,  Laurence,  21 

Stevenson,   n6n 

Stewart,  Alvan,  373 

Stewart,  William  M.,  antislavery  pro- 
test of,  363  ;  founded  American  Tract 
Society,  30 

Stillman,  Major  Isaiah,  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  161,  162,  163,  164,  165 

St.  Joseph  river,  195 

St.  Louis,  2,  92,  152,  299,  393n,  422,  423, 
424n,  433,  434;  antislavery  tracts  for- 
warded from,  83 ;  commercial  im- 
portance of,  9,  189,  190,  191,  192,  203, 
212,  309,  310,  313,  333,  386,  387; 
Lovejoy  advocated  antislavery  soci- 
ety in,  367;  Lovejoy  edited  paper  in, 
365;  Peck  located  in,  27;  stage  line 
to,  10;  stock  in  Bank  of  Edwards- 
ville, 55 

St.  Mary,  420 

St.  Mary's  of  the  Lake,  University 
of,  see  education 

Storrs,  Henry  Randolph,  n6n 

St.  Palais,  Father  Maurice,  4230 

Strang,  James  J.,  353 

Strassburg,   423 

Street,  Joseph  M.,  106,  123,  126 

Stone,  Dan,  240,  364 

Stuart,  John  T.,  26in;  congressman, 
285;  Mormons  voted  for,  344 


Sturgis,  William,  323 

Sturtevant,  Julian  M.,  437,  438,  439 

Sunday  School  Union,  formation  of,  30 

Suppiger,  392n 

Swedes,  Lutherans,  424;  settlement  of, 

399.    See  population 
Swift,  Jonathan,  87 
Swift,  Captain  William  H.,  323 
Swiss-German,  392 
Sycamore  creek,  162 

Tallmadge,  James,  70,  71 

Tammany  Hall,  261 

Tariff,  263,  265,  273,  274,  334,  338, 
374;  agitation  of,  in  1828,  120-121, 
122-123  ;  Breese  supported,  141 ;  dis- 
cussion of,  105 ;  Jackson's  policy 
toward,  142,  24111,  262;  whig  atti- 
tude toward,  258 

Taylor,  Edmund  D.,  149 

Taylor,  Nathaniel  W.,  438 

Taylor,  Zachary,  381;  commends  1115- 
noisians'  services,  405-406 ;  nomi- 
nated for  president,  338-339 

Tazewell,  Littleton  W.,  122 

Tazewell  county,  5,  178,  180,  203,  430 

Tecumseh,  240 

Tennessee,  52,  115,  u6n,  130,  236,  241 

Tennessee  river,  332 

Terre  Haute,  192,  209 

Teutopolis,  393n 

Texas,  300,  331,  380,  401,  404;  annexa- 
tion of,  275,  277,  327,  328,  329,  336, 
372;  possible  Mormon  location  in, 
356 

Thames,  240 

Thomas,  Jesse  B.,  79,  125,  126;  ap- 
pointed on  committee  on  public  lands, 
99;  elected  senator,  95;  member  of 
anti-Edwards  faction,  94;  set  up 
carding  machine,  8 ;  strife  between 
Edwards  and,  95-98;  supported 
cause  of  Missouri,  72 ;  supported 
Crawford,  96 

Thomas,  William,  256 

Thompson,  S.  H.,  29 

Thornton,  William  F.,  229,  230,  233, 
285,  286 

Throckmorton,  John,  169 

Tillson,  John,  228,  304,  305 

Tillson,  Mrs.  John,  18 

Transportation,  act  to  complete  canal, 
321-326;  Alton  and  Shawneetown 
railroad  216;  Alton  and  Shelbyville 
railroad,  216;  Alton,  Wabash,  and 
Erie  railroad,  2iin;  Belleville  rail- 
road, 21  in;  Bloomington  and  Macki- 
naw railroad,  213,  214;  Blooming- 


INDEX 


473 


ton  and  Pekin  railroad,  216;  canal 
bill  affected  by  slavery  contest,  77; 
canal  bill  passed  in  1827,  120;  Cen- 
tral Branch  Wabash  railroad,  21  in; 
Charleston  and  Memphis  railroad, 
207;  Charleston  railroad,  219;  con- 
ditions of,  9-12;  Cumberland  road, 
42,  105,  189,  203,  241,  268,  277,  330, 
331,  S32,  3335  development  of,  188- 
193 ;  Duncan's  policy  in  internal  im- 
provements, 285;  Edwards'  propo- 
sals for,  120;  Erie  canal,  12,  191, 
387;  failure  of  system  of  internal 
improvements,  216-235;  Ford's  meas- 
ures concerning  internal  improve- 
ments, 317-320;  Galena  and  Chicago 
Union  railroad,  209,  212;  Great 
Lakes,  12,  190-191,  194;  Great  West- 
ern Mail  railroad,  213;  Illinois 
Central,  207,  209,  211,  212,  213,  216, 
218-219;  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal, 
12,  42-43,  105,  194-201,  206,  207,  210, 
218,  220,  225-235,  241,  264,  285,  287, 
288,  289,  318,  320,  321-326,  331,  332, 
396,  409;  Jackson's  policy  toward  in- 
ternal improvements,  24in,  262 ; 
Kinney  opposed  canal,  145 ;  legisla- 
tion concerning,  41-43;  Louisville 
and  Portland  canal,  332;  Mississippi, 
Springfield,  and  Carrollton  railroad, 
211 ;  Mt.  Carmel  and  Alton,  2iin, 
213,  216;  new  bank  and  internal  im- 
provements, 306,  307  ;  New  York  and 
Erie  railroad,  191 ;  Northern  Cross 
railroad,  213,  216,  225;  on  Ohio  and 
Mississippi,  6 ;  Pekin  and  Tremont 
railroad,  21  in;  Pekin,  Bloomington, 
and  Wabash  railroad,  21  in;  popu- 
lation related  to,  2-3 ;  production 
affected  by,  7;  projected  railroads, 
205-212;  railroads,  n;  railroad  leg- 
islation 1836-1837,  212-215;  railroad 
schemes,  216-219;  railroads  v.  canal, 
199,  205-206;  Reynolds'  promises  for 
improved,  129;  river  and  harbor 
bill,  333,  334,  335,  33^,  374,  381; 
river  and  harbor  improvements,  327, 
330,  331,  332-333;  Rushville  railroad, 
2iin;  Southern  Cross  railroad,  213; 
Springfield  and  Alton  railroad,  207; 
usefulness  of,  173,  193;  Van  Buren's 
policy  toward  internal  improvements, 
241,  268;  Wabash  and  Erie  canal, 
206,  207,  209,  210,  212,  217;  Wabash 
and  Mississippi  railroad,  210,  2iin; 
Wabash  and  Mississippi  Union  rail- 
road, 21  in;  Wabash  railroad,  212; 


Warsaw,  Peoria,  and  Wabash  rail- 
road, 211,  213,  216;  whig  attitude 
toward  internal  improvements,  258 

Treat,  Samuel  H.,  justice  of  supreme 
court,  283,  379 

Tremont,  178 

Tremont  and  Pekin  railroad,  see  trans- 
portation 

Trower,  Thomas,  238 

Trumbull,  Lyman,  276,  281,  295,  296, 
297,  299,  301,  314,  378,  402 

Turner,  Asa,  437 

Turner,  Jonathan  Baldwin,  180,  352, 
384,  410,  437 ;  editor  of  newspaper, 
411;  wide  influence  of,  439-442 

Turner,  Timothy,  426 

Turney,  James,  78,  79,  106,  107,  HI, 
229 

Tyler,  John,  271,  283,  331,  336;  poli- 
cies of,  272-275 

"  Tyro,"  see  Forquer 

Union  county,  89 

Union  Grove,  176 

Unitarian  church,  14 

United   States,   Bank   of,   set   banking 

Universalist  church,  29,  376 

Utah,  362 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  133,  149,  244,  245, 
246,  248,  261,  284;  alleged  influence 
over  Jackson,  146;  candidate  for 
vice  presidency,  139-140;  elected 
president,  242 ;  growing  importance 
of,  138;  hostile  to  canal,  i46n;  land 
policy,  187-188;  opposed  Duncan 
1833,  144;  presidential,  campaign, 
183^6,  236-242,  253;  presidential  cam- 
paign 1840,  265-270;  presidential 
candidate  1844,  275,  276-277;  Turner 
opposed,  440 

Vandalia,  29,  30,  46,  127,  142,  2o6n, 
207,  210,  212,  287,  288,  291,  386, 
393n,  412;  branch  bank  at,  305;  cap- 
ital of  State  Bank  at,  59;  conven- 
tionists  and  anti-conventionists  met 
at,  80-81;  Jackson  and  Johnson 
meetings  at,  140,  land  sales  in,  5, 
62,  69,  175,  176;  made  state  capital, 
50-51;  proposed  roads  from,  42; 
removal  of  capital  from,  201-204 

Van  Quickenborne,  Father,  423 

Varna,  179 

Vermilion  county,  330 

Vermilion  river,  201 

Vermilion   saline,  42,   66 

Vermont,  178 

Vincennes,  3,  48,  208,  423 


474 


INDEX 


Virginia,  49,  75,  271 ;  discussion  over 
slavery  provision  in  deed  of  cession, 
?o,  7*»  77,  86 

Voree,  353 

Wabash  and  Erie  canal,  see  transpor- 
tation 

Wabash  and  Mississippi  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Wabash  and  Mississippi  Union  rail- 
road, see  transportation 

Wabash  college,  438 

Wabash  county,  288,  426 

Wabash,  Erie  and  Alton  railroad,  see 
transportation 

Wabash,  Pekin,  and  Bloomington  rail- 
road, see  transportation 

Wabash  railroad,  see  transportation 

Wabash  river,  2,  3,  9,  13,  42,  81,  143, 
195,  196,  198,  206,  208,  209,  210,  212, 
332 

Wabash,  Warsaw  and  Peoria  railroad, 
see  transportation 

Walker,  Cyrus,  294,  347 

Walker,  Jesse,  26-27 

Walker,  Robert  J.,  186-187 

Wallace,  James,  373 

Walters,  William,  273,  274,  275,  278, 
283,  291,  293,  296,  297-300 

Wanborough,  Birkbeck  founded,  14-15 

Wanborough,  England,  Birkbeck  from, 

Ward,  T.  W.,  323 

Warnock,  John,  196 

War  of  1812,  3,  20,  107,  130,  151,  154, 

i75,  241 
Warren,   Hooper,   73,   75,    80,   81,    82, 

132,  133,  37i 

Warren,  Major  William  B.,  358-359 

Warren  county,  203,  348 

Warrenville,  376 

Warsaw,  192,  350,  357 

Warsaw,  Peoria,  and  Wabash  rail- 
road, see  transportation 

Washington,  George,  20,  115,  269,  272 

Washington,  size  of,   178 

Washington  county,  settlement  in,  3,  89 

Washington,  D.  C.,  95,  98,  100,  113, 
115,  118,  133,  245,  287,  299,  300,  333 

Washingtonian  movement,  413,  427 

Waterville  College,  365 

Wayne  county,  81,  89,  212 

Weathersfield,  179 

Webb,  Henry  L.,  284 

Weber,  George  R.,  299 

Webster,  Daniel,  185,  236,  260,  274, 
328,  375 


Wentworth,  John,  231,  278,  283,  284, 
285,  299,  380;  described  Chicago 
packing  house,  388n;  editorials  on 
trade,  389;  elected  to  congress,  294; 
influence  of,  300-301,  335-336;  in- 
ternal improvement  interests  of, 
33°~335»  on  Oregon  question,  329, 
330;  opinion  on  Springfield  clique, 
298 ;  opposed  slavery,  374-375 ;  op- 
posed southern  democrats,  381 

West,  Emanuel  J.,  deserted  Edwards 
faction,  94,  117,  125,  127 

Western  Reserve  College,  438 

West  Indies,  118,  219 

West  Virginia,  421 

Whig  party,  see  politics 

Whipple  Academy,  see  education 

White,  Hugh  Lawson,  236-240,  293 

White,  Leonard,  connected  with  Bank 
of  Illinois,  55;  defeated  for  senate, 
95;  favored  convention,  90;  member 
of  Edwards  faction,  94;  senatorial 
candidate,  97 

White  county,  50,  81,  89,  214 

Whiteside,  James,  238 

Whiteside,  John  D.,  229 

Whiteside,  General  Samuel,  161 

Whiteside  county,  174 

Whitney,  Reuben  M.,  305 

Whitten,  Easton,  2o8n 

Wiggins,  Samuel,  304,  309 

Wight,  Colonel  A.  G.  S.,  106,  238 

Wight,  Lyman,   354 

Will,  Conrad,  77,  303 

Will  county,  369 

Williams,  Levi,  357 

Williams,  M.  J.,  305 

Williamson  county,  287 

Willis,  N.  P.,  413 

Wilmot  proviso,  335,  381 

Wilson,  John  M.,  230 

Wilson,  William,  126,  136,  144,  279, 
280;  confirmed  justice,  125;  member 
of  supreme  court,  35;  senatorial 
aspirant,  137-138 

Winnebago,  164,  169;  Black  Hawk  ex- 
pected aid  from,  159,  162;  location 
of,  3 

Winnebago,  Fort,  167 

Winnebago  War,  152,  422n 

Wirt,  William,  96,  140 

Wisconsin,  164,  167,  168,  327;  Chicago 
market  for,  389;  land  cessions  in, 
153;  Norwegian  settlement  in,  399; 
possible  Mormon  location  in,  356; 
proposed  union  with  Illinois,  289-290 

Wisconsin  Heights,  168,  i69n,  170 


INDEX  475 


Wisconsin  Marine  and  Fire  Insurance  Yale,  Kane  from,  94,  95,  437-439 

Company,  313  Yates,  Richard,  324 

Wisconsin  river,  168,  169  Young,  Brigham,  353-355 

Woodbury,  Levi,  305  Young,  Richard  M.,  109,  14411,  188,  225, 

Woodford  county,  393  246,  283 ;   elected  to  supreme  court, 

Wool,  General  John  A.,  402  283;   financial  policy  of,  245;  sena- 

Wright,  John,  and  Company,  225-229,  torial  aspirant,  137-138 

313 

Wyatt,  John,  308  Zieber,  John  S.,  298 
Wynkoop,  Aristides  B.,  300 


